


Paradox Space Wars Book 3: Seers of Doom

by gingerinafez



Series: Paradox Space Wars [3]
Category: Homestuck, Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Star Wars Setting, Ancestors, Ancestors (Homestuck), Grubs (Homestuck), Homestuck AU, Mentions of Karkat - Freeform, Movie: Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, OCs Freeform, Revenge of the Sith, Star Wars AU, jedistuck, mentions of kanaya
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-23
Updated: 2017-02-12
Packaged: 2018-08-24 04:30:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 17
Words: 41,967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8357254
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gingerinafez/pseuds/gingerinafez
Summary: “A Sith legend," she explained. "They say there are many ways in which the Force can be taught to do things… quite unnatural I suppose. One Lord even figured out how to use midi-chlorians to prevent people from dying. The Dark side can be very… unorthodox in that way. She couldn’t save herself in the end, though. Eventually her apprentice killed her.”“Is it possible to learn how to use the Force like that?” Signless asked.Chancellor Peixes shrugged. “How should I know?”With the Clone Wars winding to an end political agendas of all sorts are surfacing, as are more and more of Signless's doubts about the Order to which he's given his life. Torn between his family and his beliefs, every decision is becoming more complex. His Master, Psiioniic, sees the other Jedi in distress and can feel history being made around them. Dark times loom ahead as a steady hand pulls the powerful young Signless towards a fate he'd never dreamed he'd become.Last Prequel AU, then onto the original trilogy. This is an AU of Revenge of the Sith, the third installment of the ongoing Paradox Space Wars series. The first is Knights of Space. All Star Wars movies are in progress. Heirs of Hope has been posted.





	1. The Beginning of the End of the End of the Beginning Has Begun

**Author's Note:**

> Hello to everyone returning and everyone just finding this! Thank you for reading my fics. A quick rundown: This is the last installment of the prequels. Knights of Space was the first, Witches of Heart was the second. I'm currently working on the equivalent of A New Hope but school's a bitch so I don't know when it'll be done. I'll try to finish it in time for consistent posting. I really appreciate any feedback you guys might have. Thank you so much for reading!

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…

 

For the first time in thousands of peaceful years the Republic is at war. Sith Lord and former Jedi Grand Highblood has the galaxy crumbling under attacks in all sectors. The body count for the Republic, the Separatists, and civilians rises daily. Death plagues the stars.

Without warning cunning droid leader General Noir stormed the Republic capital and kidnapped Chancellor Peixes, who had been leading the Galactic Senate through the three long years of war.

As the Separatists’ forces attempt to flee the overthrown capital with the Chancellor, two Jedi Knights lead a hell-bent mission to reclaim the captive leader….

 

 

Space is beautiful. No matter how many times you see it, no matter how many missions you fly or how far you go, nothing beats the vast endlessness of space. Without atmosphere or debris or a fleeting sense of appreciation the stars could shut anyone up. Billions of shinning pinpricks in a blanket of the darkest, velvety black leaking light out into the nothingness. Signless wished the battle waging around him would stop tainting it.

Red blasts of laser fire sparked around the canopy of his fighter. He growled under his breath as he pulled the yoke up and threw the machine into a 360 circle, suddenly behind his attacker and blowing them to bits with his artillery. Damn droids.

WV whistled through the intercom and Signless spun the ship around to go find Psiioniic. All around him big ships and little ship and fighters of all kinds were attacking and being shot down or shooting someone else. He blasted a few easy droid ships for good measure as he dipped in low and rode the belly of a battle cruiser over the a whole new sector of the raging battlefield. WV screeched as blasts of enemy fire pounded his shields.

He ducked and weaved; the unidentified fire taking out an a-wing beside him as it chased him. He punched a switch and tried to outrun it but it wouldn’t shake. WV beeped helpfully.

“I’m trying! He won’t let up!”

WV beeped again.

Signless’s eyes lit up as he realized what the little droid was saying. He gunned the engine of the fighter to for all it was worth and sped towards the side of the enemy ship. It kept firing, knowing well that a little laser fire wouldn’t damage the ships shields. Signless glanced at this monitor. It was gaining. Good. He sped towards the side of the enormous cruiser. At the last moment he yanked back and climbed. The assailant didn’t fall for it, but it gave Signless just enough time to fall back and blast it from behind. The thing exploded silently into space junk.

That was one of the things Signless hated about space warfare. Silence. It bothered him that so much destruction and death could occur with barely a whisper. The noise surrounding him was just vibrations from the ship and WV’s commentary.

Well, one crisis averted. Already two drop fighters were targeting him. He dipped and dived through the heavy fire and broken ship pieces until he spotted a familiar blue fighter taking out two x-wings tailing a Republic ship.

“I’ve got you in my sights, Psiioniic. Looks like some drop droids are targeting you,” he said into his mic.

He saw Psiioniic’s head swivel in his fighter as he sped down to fly alongside him.

“Looks like I’m not the only one,” Psiioniic noted. Signless looked up in time to see half a dozen spindly little robotic gremlins drop from the bigger fighter and fall onto his and Psiioniic’s ship. He cursed under his breath. The spiderlike buzz droids were already rolling out of their casing and skittering around the two ships. WV screamed and zapped any near enough to its electric appendage. Both Psiioniic and Signless struggled and cursed as they jerked their ships around in dumb movements to rid themselves of the drilling droids already doing damage.

Signless flew into the debris of a destroyed ship, cracking his canopy a bit but losing three of the droids and shaking off the dead ones. The last one made the mistake of crawling onto the jet propulsion turbine. Signless revved the ship and melted the little bastard into oblivion.

With that out of the way he turned to find Psiioniic still struggling with four of them.  He fell back behind Psiioniic’s fighter.

“Don’t panic. I’m going to start shooting at you.”

“No you will not-“

But Signless had already blasted three of them. He clipped Psiioniic’s wing taking out the last one, causing him to lurch for a moment. When the damage was compensated for, Signless fell back in line once again next to his friend.

“Don’t-“Psiioniic barked, “- _ever_ do that again.”

“Alright, but I did get them off your ship.”

Psiioniic groaned over the comlink. “Oh damn…”

Signless tightened his grip on the yoke. “Failing?”

“Miserably.”

Signless could see the weird, almost bubbling smoke spilling out of the boosters in Psiioniic’s ship. It was losing propulsion. Signless raced around and started taking out any potential threats as Psiioniic steered his failing fighter to the battle cruiser at the head of the Separatist fleet. He stopped focusing and tried to clear his mind. An almost painful sensation rose up from the bottom of his chest and settled in the base of his neck. The battle seemed almost slower and he went into a daze, teeth clenched and white knuckled, taking out any fighter that came close to his vicinity and bore a Separatist insignia on its  wing.

“General Psiioniic to all fighters available: converge on the command ship and fall into Signless’s lead. Repeat, converge and fall into Signless’s lead.”

Signless shook his head to clear it and punched two-way communication.

“What?”

“I’m damaged,” Psiioniic explained. “You’re in the better condition. Look how many vulture droids are on that ship. Until my R2 fixed up this propulsion leak it’s up to you. Now go!”

Signless saw about a dozen Republic ships fall into formation behind his lead. He took a deep breath and switched back to all-way com links.

“Formation C, stay tight. Vultures are never a simple thing.”

Various voices flooded in the speakers in various versions of “Copy”. They flew towards the large, open hanger of the ship and were already shooting as dozens of angular vultures detached themselves from the ship and flung themselves at the formation. Formation C was an odd one Psiioniic had created during a battle around the beginning of the war. Everyone hated using it because it took advantage of being space and made half the pilots fly upside-down in relation to the leader so as to make them less vulnerable. It was horribly disorienting but compensated with insane effectiveness.

These fighters were experienced and took the formation in stride. Almost half the vultures were shot down before they even reached them, but when they did, with their sharp, jabbing legs, cockpits were being cracked left and right. The formation began to wobble as the hanger shield came down and released five more droid fighters.

“Damn. Alright! Everyone listen up!” Signless cried as he started to take on one droid ship, “If you’re damaged, get out of here! Everyone else, tag a fighter and don’t let go till they’re junk or Psiioniic and I are aboard. Clear?”

”Roger that.”

“Affirmative.”

“Loud and clear, captain.”

“Copy that.”

Drifting clouds of aimless smoke unsure where to go without the aid of wind or gravity began to fog the space surrounding the battle cruiser. Signless spared a moment to find Psiioniic and saw that he was already restarting his boosters. With a flash of blue his Master was speeding towards him to join the fight. He took out one of the fighters and fell in beside Signless. He nodded through the canopy.

Tri-fighters had begun spilling out of the hanger as well. Signless and Psiioniic flew like they fought; fast, hard, and with only accidental synchronization. As flack and red bursts of fire surrounded them they dodged and fired together, splitting up enemy formations and crushing straggling droids. Despite all this, reinforcements just kept coming.

On his right Signless saw three Republic fighters being tailed.

“I’m going to help!” Signless yelled as he yanked his ship in their direction.

“Signless, no!” Psiioniic yelled back but Signless was already there, chasing the fighters away. The three Republic ships behind him formed a v and aided him with expert fluidity to take out the tri-fighters.

With that out of the way he turned back to Psiioniic, who was practically drowning in vultures. WV squealed as Signless dove in without hindrance, cutting through them as if the ship was just an extension of himself but the damage was done. Psiioniic’s already damaged boosters sparked and flared blue as he thrust himself with all the ship had left to the hanger.

Signless slouched in his seat as the com crackled to life with his Master’s exasperated voice as he watched him wrestle the machine into something of a straight line.

“Next time I say ‘no’, will you listen?”

“Yes, Master.”

Signless followed close behind Psiioniic and picked off the vultures. He knew what Psiioniic was going to do and he was sure Psiioniic didn’t like it at all.

The blueish shield to the hanger melted down, releasing two tri-fighters. Psiioniic blasted everything he had right into the hanger, slamming his ship into the wings of one of the fighters, sending it in a spiral back into the hanger and the mayhem that followed spread like an electric current. Psiioniic sparked into a rolling stop in the hanger. The other ship crashed back down into three other ships waiting to take off. Those ships screeched and piled up into a flaming heap and it just continued. Signless gunned the acceleration and flew straight into the chaos just as the blue shield was coming back down. WV screamed in his com the whole time.

Once he came to a sliding stop into the hanger the wreckage became magnified and a whole lot hotter. Ships blazed and smoldered all around him. A squad of droids ran up to his ship but got crushed by a keeling x-wing before they reached him. Burning gas shimmered hazy in the recycled air. Signless flipped the brake on and the acceleration after manually leaking the fuel lines.

WV beeped frantically as they lowered themselves down from the port.

“Yes, WV, I am blowing up the ship. Why do you ask?”

He hopped out of the cockpit and ran, Wayward Vagabond right beside him. Fuel fumes and the heat from ships washed over him. He stayed low and ran from burning ship to burning ship until he reached Psiioniic’s fighter. His Master wasn’t in the cockpit but there was a lot of yellow blood to show he had.

A hand grabbed his shoulder. Signless whirled, but all it was just Psiioniic. His other hand was pressed to his gushing nose.

“I’ve made my ship into a bomb,” Signless informed him.

Psiioniic didn’t even blink. “Wonderful. Let’s run.”

Run they did. Under all the destruction they had caused they were practically invisible. They darted from flaming wreck to flaming wreck and only took out the droids that noticed them. Soon enough they had WV opening a door and they were in a long, deserted metal hallway away from all the sound.    They didn’t stop running until there was an explosion strong enough to shake the metal floor underneath them.

Psiioniic ducked into a doorframe and leaned against the wall. His nose wouldn’t stop bleeding and the cuts and scrapes all over his face remained yellow and angry as ever. Signless gulped.

“I’m sorry, Master,” he said. “I thought that-“

Psiioniic waved a hand. “Don’t think I’m not pissed about that little maneuver, I am. But right now our main… main objective…” he slumped forward. Signless kneeled down to catch him, but he caught himself on the door. “Main objective,” he continued, straightening, “is to find Chancellor Peixes.”

Signless nodded. He led WV to a little control port down the hall and directed them to stay there and unlock doors and whatnot as they continued through the ship. WV beeped in affirmation.

Psiioniic’s nose had lessened a bit when he came back. His Master just nodded and hurried down the halls of the cruiser. WV beeped and whirred directions in their earpieces as they zigged and zagged through the complex inner vaults. Usually WV could get them past any trouble but occasionally there were the few stray droids or maintenance bots that needed to be taken out. As they got closer to the main control bay a dark shadow grew in Signless’s mind.

“Highblood is going to be waiting for us, Psiioniic. How are we going to do this?”

Psiioniic slowed his jog a tiny bit. “It’s obviously a trap. They’ll be waiting for us, yes. We’ll just have to be very, very clever. He may be stronger than us but never mistake physical strength for power. Remember, Signless, a smart Jedi is a much more potent adversary than an angered one.”

Signless nodded and tried to clear his head. It was getting harder and harder to do that. It was a lot easier to fight for his family than for the Republic. As they neared the bay he tried to let his mind go, follow the Force and go on autopilot. Instead, visions of Disciple and Karkat and Kanaya flooded his brain. A warm, tight sensation grew in his chest. His vision focused and his mind set on a goal: secure the Chancellor, end the war, and go home.

Psiioniic’s lightsabers ignited. Signless lit his and charged along with Psiioniic at the six guards running down the hallway. Psiioniic took out three and Signless slashed two. Psiioniic ricocheted a shot from the last one back onto the guard’s chest. Already a dozen more guards were streaming down the end of the hallway into their midst.

“WV, get us out of here,” Signless panted as they ran the other way. WV chirped and whistled.

“Down? What do you mean down?”

Psiioniic cursed and slashed the control panel near a door. It hissed open. Signless jumped in after him. The door slammed shut and Psiioniic rammed a lightsaber into the far wall.

“What are you doing?” Signless yelled. “You can’t just cut your way to the command bay!”

WV beeped.

“That’s right, WV,” Psiioniic grunted. “I can’t cut my way to the command bay, but I can cut my way to the emergency pipes leading directly under it.”

Signless understood immediately and rushed forward to cut into the wall as well. There was pounding on the door behind them. The metal strained and sparked under their lightsabers. Finally it gave way. The two pushed the metal aside and jumped blindly into the pipe just as the door behind them burst open. Sounds of laser fire and shouts dropped away above them as they fell down the pipe. Signless grasped at the darkness but felt nothing.

“Hold your breath!” Psiioniic shouted over the wind, and he did, just before the noise abruptly died and gave way to the _whoosh!_ of the dark liquid surrounding him.

He surfaced with a violent gasp. For a sickening moment it was just his own splashing that filled the room. Then Psiioniic burst up beside him.

“Well that went better than I expected,” his Master stated.

Signless treaded the water silently. “Awesome. Not dead. What next?”

“There should be a ladder around here somewhere…”

He heard Psiioniic swim until his claws scraped a wall. Eerie echoes reverberated up and up through the gigantic pipe. Signless swam to the other side and began feeling around the walls that felt both rusted and slimy at the same time.

“What is this stuff anyway, Master?”

“Condensation from the engine room, it has to be put somewhere until it’s recycled or…”

“Or what- oh! I found it!”

“Climb!” Psiioniic yelled urgently. Signless began to climb frantically. Underneath him Psiioniic splashed until reaching the ladder and climbing up after him. A horrible moaning sound shuddered through the pipe.

 “Or what!”

“Once you feel a run off valve, climb into it! WV, open the nearest one up for us!”

WV chirped in his ear. Forty more feet to go. The ladder started shaking. Signless’s teeth rattled in his jaw. His foot slipped for a moment, getting Psiioniic in the head. Psiioniic just urged him forward.

“Or! What!” he yelled as he threw himself into the open valve door. Psiioniic jumped in after him and yanked the door shut, securing the panel with its magnetic clamps and locking them into another smaller pipe just as a tremor rocked through the chamber making Signless fall forward and bite his tongue.

“Or they jettison it out to space. Alright. Onward.”

Signless didn’t hesitate to let out frustrated grunt as he crawled on his hands and knees down the warm, damp, dark pipe, Psiioniic right behind him. His blood tasted briny in his mouth.

“And you say _I_ don’t plan,” he muttered.

Psiioniic scoffed in the darkness behind him. “I plan! I planned to get us away from the guards by jumping into the pipe. Then I planned to get us out of the pipe by finding this pipe. Simple.”

Signless didn’t even argue. He was the one who got Psiioniic’s ship damaged in the first place. They were even now.

He stopped suddenly, causing Psiioniic to very ungracefully jab him in the ass with his horns.

Signless winced, but then whispered, “Do you hear that?”

Psiioniic didn’t reply. The ticking sound was getting closer.

“WV,” Psiioniic whispered. “Are we safe to cut up and out of this pipe?”

WV beeped in their earpieces. Cut down, they should arrive in a hallway, deserted down but no guarantee it will be when they get there.  The ticking was closer and louder now. Signless felt Psiioniic turn around tightly in the pipe.

“Signless, start cutting.”

Signless pointed his saber down and lit it, instantly slicing through the pipe and the metal under it. It hissed as it boiled the water resting on the bottom of the pipe. Red, pulsing light reflected in wavy lines off the water and filled the shadows with ominous light. Signless looked over his shoulder to see the tight seat of Psiioniic’s pants, and past that, a crouching, spidery droid the likes of which he had never seen before.

It leapt into Psiioniic, knocking him into Signless. Signless struggled to keep his lightsaber cutting while Psiioniic and the demon droid wrestled on top of him. He didn’t even spare a glance to see how his Master was doing. Psiioniic grunted and cursed. The metal beneath them started to groan. There was a long sort of _screech_ and then a _pop!_ as it all gave way. Psiioniic and Signless and the thing all fell into a hallway, right on top of a squad of droids.

In a flash Signless had already relit his saber and taken half them out. Psiioniic slashed the little scuttling droid and then twirled to decapitate four droids, slicing anything else still standing. Signless and Psiioniic’s panting breath filled up the silence that followed.

Signless pointed unsteadily at an elevator. Psiioniic nodded and walked over to Signless as he pressed the button. It beeped and opened up to a surprised officer who pointed his gun at them and fired. Signless, instinctively, deflected it and killed him. Psiioniic didn’t comment, just stepped into the elevator. Just as Signless stepped in, five destroyers rolled into the hall.

Signless pressed the button. The droids open fired. Psiioniic and Signless brandished their sabers. Signless’s free hand jabbed the up button frantically. They deflected the lasers as they rolled forward until the door shut. Psiioniic made a popping noise with his lips.

“I am going to sleep _so long_ when this is done.”

Signless nodded in agreement. War was tiring.

The elevator made a screeching noise and ground to a stop. Signless would have laughed. Psiioniic actually punched the elevator door and yelled, “Why is everything always so damn difficult all of the fucking time!” He took a deep breath and pressed his comlink. “WV, can you track us? Great, can you get us moving again? Signless, what are you doing?”

Signless was already cutting a hole into the roof of the elevator. “Just following your example, Master.” He heard Psiioniic sigh, but not argue, and finished cutting the hole. He waited a moment for the metal to cool before heaving himself up on top of the elevator. The elevator shaft was dimly lit and daunting. There were doorframes on the walls ever hundred feet or so.

He reached out and grabbed some siding, seeing if he could get a good grip. At that moment, the weight under his feet left him and suddenly he was dangling. Signless yelped and tightened his grip on the siding. Far below him he could see the little circle of light from the top of the elevator getting smaller and smaller. He kicked his feet around until he found some solid footing and hauled himself up. Screeching from the elevator shaft below him echoed in up the metal pit. He pulled himself up until he was resting in the nearest doorframe.

He frowned at the elevator below him. It was getting bigger again. Psiioniic had grown more and more profane over the course of the war, and Signless decided now was the perfect time to take a word out of his newfound vernacular.

“Shit.”

The elevator got louder and bigger as it barreled up towards him. He focused on the circle of light and breathed, cleared his mind, noted how to fall-

“Freeze!” a droid yelled as the door opened suddenly.

Signless cried out and suddenly he was falling towards a circle of light that would crush him if he fell wrong. He balled up the Force around him and focused on a tight, hot feeling searing behind his eyes. He thought of Disciple and told the universe, _save me._

Stars exploded his vision and suddenly he was lying face down on the elevator floor. Someone was grabbing him. An awful ringing had situated itself in his ears. He groaned as he rolled over to face a kneeling Psiioniic.

“…less. Signless, can you hear me?”

He was waving a blurry hand over Signless’s face. Signless blinked and coughed and the world tilted as he sat up. Psiioniic sighed.

“Is anything broken?”

Signless slowly shook his head.

Psiioniic stood up. “I don’t know how you’ve managed to stayed alive this long.”

Signless didn’t know either. He groaned as he took Psiioniic’s hand and pulled himself up. “Are you okay?” Psiioniic asked.

Signless nodded. “I’m ready. What the hell was that?”

Psiioniic shrugged. “You know how WV is. That little droid needs to be reprogrammed, I keep telling you.”

“I like them just the way they are!” Signless argued in the droid’s defense. WV beeped a little thank you in his ear. Psiioniic rolled his eyes.

The elevator slowed to a stop at the command bay level. Psiioniic ignited his sabers and nodded to Signless to do the same. The door opened quietly to the spacious windows and computers of the command bay. Sitting in a chair at the far end of the chamber was the gracious and terrified figure of Chancellor Peixes.

“No!” she shouted, looking around them.

Signless and Psiioniic whirled in unison to face the gently chuckling Sith Lord waiting on the balcony above them, Grand Highblood.

 

 

 


	2. Heads (And Starships) Will Roll

Grand Highblood didn’t seem to age over the course of the war. Where Signless and Psiioniic had broken bones and memories, Highblood only reveled and thrived. He strode towards them slowly, savoring the moment, taking an audacious second to actually lick his lips in excitement.

He tsked. “As much as you two plague me, I have to admit you are persistent.”

Psiioniic and Signless inched their way backwards. Peixes whimpered behind them. “Please,” she whispered, “he’s a Sith Lord. Don’t die here.”

Signless spoke over his shoulder calmly, “Don’t worry Chancellor. We don’t make the same mistakes twice.” He nodded to Psiioniic.

“Together?” Psiioniic whispered.

Signless nodded and the two of them charged. Highblood roared and ignited his neon purple lightsaber and charged to meet them. They split. Highblood was expecting that but they were expecting him to expect it too. Psiioniic drove high, hacking violently at Highblood’s shoulders and undefended back while Signless went low and thrust around Highblood’s thighs and ankles. Highblood swiveled up and down to try and stop them. He was successful, but just barely.

Around the room the three of them ran and jabbed and fought. It was not a graceful battle. Sabers did not slice but sever. They did not dance but kick. Soon all three were bleeding and still the fighting continued.

Signless’s mind seemed very far away as the intensity rose. Thoughtlessly he jabbed and struck like he was seeing the battle on a screen and just observing his own actions. The hot, angry blur of everyone who had died, of every life and friend and civilian who had been lost in this war washed over him like a tidal wave of mad energy that spurred him into a ferocity almost matching Highblood’s.

Highblood smacked Psiioniic and sent him tumbling. Psiioniic rolled backwards as soon as he hit the ground right behind Highblood’s feet. Signless feigned a thrust and when the giant troll went to block, he threw a kick that sent the colossal body toppling over Psiioniic, who had already braced himself for the trick.

Signless gripped his saber tightly. The metal in his prosthetic left hand pulled just the tiniest bit where it met with his wrist. The pain of Highblood cutting off his hand rushed back to him. He sliced down at Highblood lying on the ground. An oozing purple line formed on his chest. Psiioniic rolled up beside his former Padawan.

“Signless!” Psiioniic barked.

Signless held his saber at Highblood’s throat. He was shaking but Highblood was still and calm.

“Don’t do something you might regret,” Psiioniic said softly.

“He’s right, Signless,” Highblood wheezed. “Don’t do something you might regret…” He thrust his hand out while kicking forward. Psiioniic when flying into a wall, his head making contact with a sickening, hard noise, before he slumped to the floor. Signless’s legs were swept out from under him. His chin smacked onto the ground and for the second time that day his sharp teeth serrated his tongue. He rolled over as Highblood barreled down on him with his saber.

“…like not killing me when you had the chance!”

Signless had a flashback to the last battle with Highblood and how Redglare fought. He shoved himself upwards, his hard nubby horns ramming into Highblood’s throat. The Sith coughed and stumbled back. Signless spat red blood in his face and without a second thought swept his arms down and sliced Highblood’s arm off from the shoulder. Highblood fell to his knees screaming.

Signless swept again, taking the other arm. Highblood yelled and screamed and manically even started laughing in between cries of anguish. Signless used the Force to yank the giant purple saber from the severed arm below him. He made an x at Highblood’s throat.

“Wonderful…” Highblood was laughing. “I’d clap if I still had hands!” With that he burst into another grotesque fit of heaving laughter.

Signless took a deep breath and looked at the sick troll before him. They’d have to get him to medical before incarcerating-

 “What are you stoppin’ for?”

Signless turned his head. “Excuse me, Chancellor?”

Chancellor Peixes pulled against the restraints of her chair. “He’s too dangerous to live. Krill ‘im Signless. End this war.”

Her voice had turned harsher with a twinge of an accent he didn’t recognize.

Signless looked back to Highblood, who was bleeding out. His mind wouldn’t form a clear thought. He couldn’t kill him.

“We can still save him- if we just- we don’t have to-“

“End this!” she cried.

Signless yanked both his arms back and watched distantly as Highblood’s giant head and all his giant hair went rolling forward. He jumped back so the head wouldn’t hit his feet.

Signless shut off the lightsabers, throwing the one that was not his away, replacing his own back onto his belt. He absentmindedly used the Force to free Chancellor Peixes of her chains. She strode up behind him.

“Thank you,” she said softly. Her voice was back to normal now. “This war would see no end with him still alive.”

Signless could think of an answer as her perfumed hair dangled beside him. An ugly, dark thing had centered itself in his chest and he didn’t like it at all. She put a hand on his shoulder and he shrugged it off harshly.

“No,” he said hesitantly. “That was wrong. He was defenseless and our prisoner. It’s not right to use the upper hand for revenge-“he stopped himself. Who said anything about revenge?

Peixes lowered her reading glasses and stared at him with her startling fuchsia eyes. “Revenge can be useful, Signless. It can push people to do what has to be done. You’ve saved many people here today.”

Signless felt sick. “Revenge is not the Jedi way,” he said as he walked over to Psiioniic. His Master didn’t look too broken but the bleeding from his forehead just screamed a concussion. He pushed Psiioniic into a sitting positon against the wall and hauled him up over his shoulders.

“Leave him, Signless, please!” Peixes begged. “We don’t have time!”

“I’m sorry Chancellor,” he said, “but I think I’m going to be making the rest of the decisions today if that’s alright with you.” Before she could argue he continued, “We need to get out of here before any droids find us.”

Peixes bit her lip and followed, her large pony tail bouncing along the way. Signless stopped abruptly before reaching the elevator.

“What? What is it?” she moaned.

Signless pointed to the window. The stars were sliding and Coruscant was growing.

“The cruiser is listing. Come on! We don’t know how long until the gravity shuts off!” He rushed up to the elevator and slammed the up button. A tugging pulled on his gut. Psiioniic was getting lighter. The elevator wasn’t coming.

“WV!” he cried into his comlink as his feet left the ground. “Open up this elevator door!” The Chancellor’s hair was floating in a giant mass behind her and her robes flowed like something alive. WV was screaming in his ear incoherent beeps and whizzes. Signless shifted Psiioniic’s weight and took out his saber. He sighed as he cut a hole into the elevator door.

“Come on!” he yelled to Peixes as he tossed Psiioniic’s floating body into the elevator before crawling in after him. A dizzying wave of vertigo hit him as he looked down and saw hundreds of meters of dark, empty air below him. He gulped and held onto a wall.

Chancellor Peixes laughed as she flew in after him. “Don’t look so sick, guppy!” she yelled, “It’s like being underwater!”

Signless didn’t reply but began yanking himself up on the siding, pushing Psiioniic every few jumps to keep him moving too. Despite her good intentions, it was not like being underwater. You could push yourself on water but you can’t swim through air. Signless and the Chancellor clumsily made their way up the elevator shaft.

“Signless?” said a voice above him.

“Hello, Master, glad to see you’re back with us.”

“Why am I falling slowing?” Psiioniic asked dumbly, turning to face the Chancellor.

“You’re not falling, you’re floating,” Signless explained as he went to push Psiioniic up a little more, but Psiioniic just went up a few inches and floated back down.

“Nope, I’m definitely falling,” he said as he grabbed some siding.

“WV!” Signless yelled into the earpieces. “Do not turn on the elevator!” But the little droid was still screaming. He hoped they were okay.

The gravity pulled down on them hard. Signless whipped out his lightsaber and dropped down to the doorframe below him. He jammed it into the door and began cutting. Psiioniic assisted the Chancellor down to his level just as the chunk of door fell out. The three of them tumbled into a hallway.

“Hey!” a droid yelled. Psiioniic sliced it in half.

“Where are we going?” he yelled to Signless as they ran down the hallway. Signless skidded to a stop.

“I don’t know. The hanger is destroyed.”

“Escape pod?” Peixes offered.

Psiioniic scoffed. “No time, we’d be better off trying to land this… thing…” he turned to Signless with a gleam in his eyes.

“Control room,” they said in unison before taking off again. Chancellor Peixes spit out complaints and questions behind them as they cut through droids of all kinds. WV wouldn’t shut up so instead they ran blindly on the tugging feeling in their guts to tell them where to go. The ship was listing and turning. For and insanely disorienting few halls they were running on the wall, then the ceiling, before a jolt and being set right side up again. After what seemed like forever they burst into a control deck filled with computers, droids, and General Noir.

Control rooms always had their own artificial gravity, Signless knew. Outside the enormous windows Coruscant was spiraling in dizzying clarity towards them. Noir turned away from the main set of control and snapped robotic fingers. Twenty droids all pointed their guns at them.

“Shit,” Psiioniic muttered. He and Signless deactivated their sabers.

General Jack Noir laughed a grating, filtered laugh through his robotic lungs. Signless didn’t know where the synthetics stopped and the Dersite began. Noir’s red eye reflected the sparking lights from the controls. His other eye was covered in a permanent eyepatch. He made no sense to Signless.

“Walking right into my control room, what an insanely clever way to get you trapped… again,” Noir grated. They’d unfortunately just added another tally for Noir in the ridiculous cat and mouse game they’d all been forced to play with each other of the course of the war.

There was nothing any of them could do as a few droids put handcuffs on them. The ship was shuddering from the impact of entering Coruscant’s atmosphere. The droids plucked their lightsabers out of their belts and handed them to General Noir.

Noir smiled sardonically at the weapons and put them in his own belt, already dangling with past trophies. “Well, wonderful rescues. Full round of applause. Great work. Now, if you’ll excuse me I have a ship to crash.” Noir waved a hand at the droids and turned back to the flight deck.

“Unless we stop you and land it first,” Psiioniic noted.

Signless made an “Mmhmm,” sound. “It’s only a matter of time really,” he played along. He had no idea what Psiioniic was planning but if he’d learned anything during his years as that crazy bastard’s Padawan it was to follow along first, ask questions later.

General Noir groaned and turned. “Fucking Jedi…” he breathed. “Alright! What is it? If you’re going to do something just do it already! Get it the fuck over with!” He pulled a gun out of his boot and pointed it at Psiioniic from across the room.

“WV,” Psiioniic whispered. “Do… anything.”

Nothing. For a solid moment there was a sickening, silent, nothing.

Signless hung his head. Damn it.

And the entire flight deck sparked into an electrical nightmare. Droids were shocked at their computers. Circuits blew off the walls. Psiioniic and Signless jumped just as the artificial gravity failed and were flung back into the back wall. Droids held onto chairs and computers. Noir was cursing up a storm, firing blinding at them from where he was holding onto the main set of controls.

“Master!” Signless yelled, “Spark the cuffs!”

“Damn it!” Psiioniic yelled as he sent a pulse into his cuffs, shorting the circuitry and frying the living hell out of his wrists, again. The burn scars there had gotten to the point there was nothing for the doctors to do anymore. Once his hands were free he sparked Signless to. Signless yelped, expecting him to cut him loose like he usually did.

Psiioniic threw a wink as he grabbed onto a chair and heaved himself horizontally to where Noir was still firing. He thrust out a hand and Noir’s gun went flying. Noir cursed and dragged himself to a little door in the corner off the room closest to him. Psiioniic struggled against the G force but he was too late. All he could manage was to yank their lightsabers away before Noir secured himself into an escape pod. The ship continued crashing into Coruscant’s atmosphere.

Signless helped Chancellor Peixes strap herself into a chair and went to go help Psiioniic, who had reached the controls. He cut through the remaining droids on his way there. Psiioniic strapped himself into the captain’s chair and began pounding buttons to open the fenders and go full reverse. Psiioniic was right alongside him, screwing with navigation until there were on something of a course to a large runway somewhere on Coruscant near their flight trajectory. A piece of debris cracked the shield and suddenly rushing wind was spewing out of the chamber. Air pressure sucked oxygen away from them as they gasped and yanked switches and controls.

WV yelled something into their ears and they both followed the instructions and were patched into the flight tower at once.

“Before you say anything!” Psiioniic yelled, “This is General Psiioniic! We have the Chancellor safe and we’re just trying to land!”

Signless heard a flustered voice filling his ear but he really didn’t listen. The only thing he registered were the words, “Clear the runway!” over and over in his ear.

Psiioniic physically punched a lever and suddenly the ship decreased speed and threw them forward. Peixes squealed.

“Well, got the drag fins to works,” Psiioniic laughed.

“Woo hoo!” Signless screamed in blind exhilaration as he punched the reverse accelerators and the speed decreased just a degree more. Red flames licked the outside of the hull maliciously. Sweat beaded on Signless’s brow as he gripped the controls harder. The runway was visible now.

“It’s… shorter than I expected!” Signless yelled.

Psiioniic let out an almost psychotic laugh, “It’s not about length, Signless! It’s about _entry_!”

The Chancellor started screaming. Something groaned and the ship lurched forward.

“WV, are you still with us!”

WV beeped in his ear, informing him that he was in fact still in the correct half of the ship. The runway neared them suddenly. Signless’s screams joined the Chancellor. Psiioniic added his as well. The runway was right under them. The ship lurched forward as it hit the runway with a deafening screech and a shower of sparks. Immediate whiplash hit all of them at once. Signless clenched his jaw so as to not bit his tongue again. The strap around his torso dug into his flesh. The ship skidded across the platform perilously, turning onto its side and slowing down to an abrupt, gentle curve of a singular 180 degree roll. It settled with a loud crash upside down.

Signless, Psiioniic, and Chancellor Peixes all panted heavily against the straps securing them to their seats. Signless spared a glance to see his dignified Chancellor with all her dignified hair flowing upside-down over and obscuring her dignified face. Blood was already beginning to rush to his head. WV moaned something robotic in their ears. To top it all off, Chancellor Peixes started slowly clapping behind them.


	3. The Most Familiar Shade of Green

WV was their first priority. After the fire crews had put out all the flames and sparking wires they found them huddled under a pile of broken ship parts. WV squealed at the sight of Signless.

With the finicky little robot recovered they left for the Senate building. It was a rather quiet ride. Chancellor Peixes wrestled with her hair while medical responders tended to the scattered bruises and abrasions. Signless knew Psiioniic couldn’t stand people poking and prodding him and stuffing medicine down his throat. He smiled at his Master gently. Psiioniic shrugged.

A whole procession was waiting for them at the Senate building, expectedly. Darkleer towered above most of them. AR could be seen hanging around the outskirts. Senator Maryam spoke softly to Master Summoner, who took up the most space out in front. They all hushed as the transport ship landed.

Chancellor Peixes was out first, greeting and shaking hands with the officials. WV zigged past Signless to start vexing AR. Signless laughed a little as he got out. Psiioniic groaned behind him.

“Come on Master, just a few politicians. Don’t be shy. This was your mission, after all,” Signless said to coax Psiioniic out of the ship.

Psiioniic groaned again and stood up. “You saved me, the Chancellor, and killed Highblood. I think you deserve the recognition here, my young friend.”

Signless tugged him forward. “Aw, you’re just saying that because you don’t want to have to deal with the press.”

“Damn right I am,” Psiioniic muttered, and then quickly changed his tone. “Master Summoner, good to see you.”

Summoner laughed loudly and bowed at Psiioniic and Signless.

“Good to see me? It’s good to see you two alive!” Summoner’s smile faded a fraction of an inch. “Chancellor Peixes told me that General Noir got away,” he continued. “Now that he is the leader of the army, the war is still ongoing. Eliminating him from the picture is our next objective. We’re getting closer, boys.”

Psiioniic and Signless nodded to the higher Jedi as he turned away.

Psiioniic put a hand on Signless’s shoulder. He looked so tired. This war had drained him in ways Signless could only imagine. There were greenish bags under his eyes constantly, even after he’d sleep in a recuperacoon for days. His nose had been broken so many times it now held a permanent crook. One of his horns had a chip the size of a small coin taken out of it. There were some missions when he didn’t let Signless come along. Early in the war he’d disappear for weeks and come back more broken than before. As the fighting progressed Signless came along on more and more of these missions, the ones where fighting got ugly and codes of any kind of honor were lost. These were never droid battles, but battles with locals who thought the Republic should die. It was always after these missions that Signless doubted if he really was doing the right thing.

“I’m going back to the Temple with Summoner. Are you sure you’re up for a field day with the politics?” his weary Master asked.

“I’ll be fine, Master. Go. Sleep. Eat.”

Psiioniic scoffed and cracked a crooked smile at him. As he was walking away he called softly, “Thank you, Signless.”

Signless nodded even though Psiioniic couldn’t see it.

“Master Signless?”

Signless turned around and smiled at the sight of Senator Maryam. She was short, stout jade blood that always thought rationally and respected people. She even called him ‘Master’, which was flattering but she coined the term out of respect. Throughout the war she’d become a very good friend and spoke for the Jedi on many occasions in the Senate.

“Hello, Senator.” He fell into step alongside her as they walked away from the Chancellor and the others. WV and AR saw them and accompanied their walk. AR was furiously telling WV that half the things they said were physically impossible.

“Do you think Highblood’s death will cease the war?” Senator Maryam asked quietly. “Chancellor Peixes’s security measures have grown… quite preposterous in some sectors of the galaxy.”

Signless nodded along quietly. She was right. Some of the missions they were sent on seemed more like terrorism than preemptive military actions, but according to Peixes it was all for the good of the Republic.

“I wish it were so, Senator, but with General Noir still out there all of the increased security measures will still be implemented until there is an official notice that the war is over. The Chancellor has been very vocal about this.”

Senator Maryam nodded gravely.

“I’ll see what I can do with the other Senators,” she said with finality.

Signless felt a comforting sensation ease down his spine. He glanced over to a hallway behind him. A skirt of green whisked out of view.

“Thank you, Senator. I’m afraid I must be off now. Feel free to take the droids, they know where my room is,” he said.

She smiled and bowed and thanked him once again for all he’s done. When she was out of sight, he ducked into the hall and ran right into Disciple’s arms. He breathed in her familiar scent as he kissed her. She mumbled something against his lips. He pulled back and held her face.

“What?”

“I missed you.”

He pulled her in again and in a bout of joy spun her around. Half a rotation spent on the Outer Rim fighting rebel systems. It’d felt like years. He took in every aspect of her face, looking for change, injury. She, like everyone else, had acquired a look of someone proverbially tired. But right now she was happy and that was all that mattered.

She smiled up at him with expectant eyes.

“What?” he asked.

She bit her lip before whispering, “They’ve started to cocoon!”

Signless’s face fell, followed by Disciple’s a second after.

“What, what’s wrong?” she asked. “Aren’t you happy?”

He put an arm around her and smiled unconvincingly. “Of course I am! It’s just… the war is still going on. What if they mature before it ends? I don’t want Karkat and Kanaya to have to deal with… this…”

“Hey,” she put a firm hand on his cheek. “It’ll be fine. We’ve made it this far. We’ll be there for them to imprint on us. Everything will be okay. Okay?”

He smiled at her, genuinely. “Okay.” He swept her up into another kiss and started kissing her neck until she was giggling into his shoulder. If she’d said it would be okay, then he’d make damn sure it was.

After a minute he just held her. She was shaking.

“Are you alright?”

“I thought you were dead,” she choked out, quietly. He realized she was crying.

“Hey hey hey…” Signless whispered softly. “I’m right here, Disciple. I’m right here.”

She wiped the green tears off her face and smiled up at him. She just nodded. He held her tightly and whispered soft things into her ear. After a moment she’d calmed down.

“I wish it could always be like this… just us…” she said into his chest.

Signless held onto her. He hadn’t seen Karkat and Kanaya in over an entire rotation. He’d missed them cocooning. He kissed the top of her head. He hated that she was sad. He hated that he wasn’t there for the grubs. He hated that even now he was listening for footsteps down the hall and he hated that the damn war was still going on. He hated the Sith for starting it. He hated-

“Signless, I can’t breathe.”

He loosened his grip on Disciple.

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay,” she said.

 

The rest of the night was theirs. Signless said the bare minimum at the press conference and bolted straight to Disciple’s bedroom before anyone could ask him anymore questions. He missed everything about her. He missed her skin and her hair and the noises she made in bed. He missed her smell and her claws and her lips. He loved her so deeply, it seemed, that the entire universe was created just so that they could meet, just so that he could hold her listen to her say his name breathlessly.

They took a shower together and then made a pile on the balcony and jammed until the night was at its darkest point and the city seemed to rest for just a small, singular hour. Horns beeped and people yelled far, far below the apartment they were in. There were still fires burning from the siege but if they only looked at the neon lights it was almost as if the damage wasn’t even there.

“Let’s run away…” Signless muttered into Disciple’s bare back.

She stroked his hair. “I wish we could, Signless. But we can’t do anything until this war is over…”

He sighed hotly onto her neck. “Let’s just pretend for a moment that the war is over. We can go back to Tatooine…”

“Wouldn’t it be nice to take the grubs back to Naboo? To the mountains?”

“We could have a nice little hive out in the middle of nowhere…”

“By a lake…

“We would bring the Crab…”

“And definitely some of the flowers from the garden. I love the purple ones…”

“And we’d be happy.”

Disciple leaned back into him. “I’m happy when I’m with you,” she said.

“I’m so in love with you.”

They fell asleep like they had so many times before, holding onto each other and smiling gently.

 

The world was black and he was alone. Signless hurled himself up and fell over trying to find his lightsaber in his panic. Instead he saw Disciple, Disciple alive, sitting a good ten feet away from him holding a glass of water.

“Are you awake, now?” she asked gently.

He ran his clammy hands over his face and fell back down onto the pile nodding and gasping. Disciple walked over to him and handed him the cold water. He gulped it down greedily and rasped out if she’d please get him a cold rag. She did and came back asking if he needed anything else. He said no.

A few months after Tatooine she’d learned how to wake up when he was having a nightmares and distance herself from him. He never meant to hurt her but sometimes it just happened and it broke his heart. It was a lot better once she could figure out when he was going to wake up disoriented. He still felt like an ass every time she had to, though.

“What was it?” she asked.

He didn’t say anything but kissed her. He knew his skin was gross and sweaty but he needed to feel her, to know she was alive and okay.

“Signless…” she said gently pushing him away, “What was it?”

He took her hand and with one of his and wiped away a stupid tear away with his other.

“You were dying,” he admitted. “I don’t know why but you were dying and it was somewhere hot. Not Tatooine but hot like… like what I used to dream was under Tatooine. Like the hand in the lava…”

Her eyes lit up for only an instant, before fading into concern for something else. “Did you see anything else?”

He shook his head. “No, why?” But he knew. “I didn’t see Karkat or Kanaya.”

She pulled him into her and let him be weak and vulnerable. He let her tell him it was only a dream and that she’d be fine.

“I’ll make sure this doesn’t happen, even if it was just a dream,” Signless whispered.

Disciple drew away from him and looked him in the eyes. “If you’re really worried you should tell Psiioniic.”

Signless scoffed. A wave of defiance crashed over him. “I can’t tell Psiioniic! He’d be infuriated. He’d think me a disgrace to the Order.”

“You don’t know that,” Disciple offered.

Signless stood up and leaned over the balcony railing. “No, I won’t tell him. He’d never understand! And you better not tell him anything about us either!”

“Don’t yell at me,” she said and he bit his lip and shut up. “I haven’t told Psiioniic anything,” she continued, “and I never would without consulting you first. We’re a team, remember? But truly, Signless, he’d your best friend. If you can trust anyone besides me, trust him.”

Signless just nodded. “He probably already suspects something, if I’m being honest,” he grumbled.

Disciple laughed and somehow that seemed to make everything better. “Yeah,” she said, “and he’ll be even more suspicious if you don’t get your ass to the Temple by sunrise, which is just under an hour according to my watch.”

“What?” Signless spun around. Disciple bit back a laugh. Signless threw a pillow at her and ran into the apartment to rinse his face and put his clothes back on. Disciple followed him around lazily reminding him to do this and that. In a matter of minutes Signless was standing at the door. He turned around to see Disciple dangling his lightsaber out by a limp and patronizing arm. He rolled his eyes, grabbed the weapon and kissed her before dashing out the door.


	4. Chancellor

Signless hesitated before Redglare’s door. All the way to her room in the Temple he felt inkling in his heart that said she knew he was coming. In little ways like that she got under his skin constantly. She knew what you felt before you felt it. She could perceive situations just… so clearly. Sometimes it was like she wasn’t even real, just some mass Jedi hallucination forever watching the affairs of the Republic with indifferent eyes. He knew she wasn’t indifferent but what she was he had no idea.

He knocked lightly. The door slid open.

“Hello, Signless,” Redglare greeted him. His eyes quickly adjusted to the dimly lit room and recognized the pointy horned silhouette of the Jedi Master sitting in front of closed blinds. “Come in. Sit down.”

The door hissed shut behind him. He took a cross-legged seat on the floor in front of her. She was kneeling with her head bowed. He frowned at her glasses on the floor next to him. He’d only seen her take her glasses off once years ago.

“What’s troubling you?” she asked casually. He couldn’t see her face to well, even with his nocturnal eyes. He didn’t know if her eyes were open or not but he knew she didn’t need sight to see him clearly.

He swallowed a few times before speaking.

“I’m worried, Master.”

She waited. “About…?” she prompted after an appropriate silence passed.

He swallowed again and glanced about the room but the shadows obscured anything that might have given him something to look at. “I keep having dreams...” She waited. “I know that dreams often have significant insight to matters at hand… but sometimes I dream things that haven’t happened and then they come true…” He tried to breathe evenly but something was upsetting him. Something about Redglare often unnerved him to the point he unknowingly started rubbing his pointer finger around his thumb in fidgety circles.

“Premonitions aren’t uncommon, Signless. Why do they bother you? You should use this gift the Force has given you,” Redglare said after Signless let the silence hang.

He rubbed his thumb faster. “I don’t foresee good things, Master. I see death and pain and… what if I’m not powerful enough to stop it?”

“The future is never set. Visions can change. But death is not a bad thing-“

“Unjust death is.”

She remained still. “Unjust is an adjective. It changes the context of the noun. Death, in itself, is not a bad thing. The passing will join the Force and experience the universe undeterred. It’s part of life. People die, Signless.”

He bit his lip and clenched his fists. Before he could speak again she asked him softly, “Who are you so afraid of losing?”

He didn’t answer. He didn’t trust himself to.

“Life is painful,” she stated simply.

“I thought we were supposed to let go of pain?”

Redglare laughed. Signless frowned at her through the darkness.

“We have to try, but that doesn’t always mean we succeed! Without pain we’d be no different than droids,” she said in a strange tone. He couldn’t tell if it was cynical or well meaning. “Pain lets us know we’re alive but we can’t let it consume us. Know that pain happens. You can’t fear it, though. If you fear pain and try to prevent it, or worse, delude yourself into believing you can stop it, you will suffer far more than if you accept it. Fear will turn anyone into monsters, and a Jedi into a Sith.”

She leaned forward suddenly. Signless felt his eyes widen at her abrupt closeness, at the way the dim light reflected off her eyes like mirrors. When she spoke next it was like two moons had stolen themselves a voice and hid away in the darkness to warn him.

“Let go of fear, or let go of what you fear losing.”

He nodded furiously. Blood pumped so loudly in his ears he barely heard her say goodbye. He muttered out the appropriate response and bowed and left and walked in a daze down the Temple halls. Everything seemed to be very far away as her words echoed in his head. Let go of Disciple or let her die. He couldn’t do either.

His unfocused eyes eventually landed on an inconspicuous little clock reminding him that he had just missed Psiioniic’s report on the Outer Rim. He cursed and hurried into the lecture hall as fast as he could but Jedi of all sorts were already bleeding out of the large room when he arrived. He cringed and slunk through the current of exiting people until he made it into the large lecture hall where Psiioniic was fiddling with a computer center floor.

Signless made his way down with an uneasy air of yet another unexcused absence to Psiioniic’s debriefings. Psiioniic raised his head and made eye contact with Signless. Even though he’d gradated to Knight ages ago he still felt like Psiioniic’s Padawan.

“I’m sorry, Master. I wasn’t paying attention to the time.”

Psiioniic shrugged. “Hey I wasn’t any better. Besides, you were in the Outer Rim with me. It’s not like you don’t know what happened first hand. I assume you did your homework though?” Psiioniic was looking a little better from yesterday. He still needed some more sleep. He always needed more sleep.

Signless nodded. “We took Saleucami and occupied Boz Pity, yeah.” Psiioniic was never too mad at him for being late. They both knew Signless was more studious than Psiioniic would ever even try to be.

Psiioniic kept his eyes on the computer, wiping maps and diagrams off it with heavy motions. His eyes held a little squint that didn’t come from the star maps. His shoulders sagged.

“What is it, Master?” Signless asked.

Psiioniic ran a hand over his face and sighed in an undignified, exhausted kind of way. In the middle of all of Signless’s nerves he actually thought he was going to ask him about Disciple.

“Chancellor Peixes wants to see you,” he said in one long, heavy breath.

Signless groaned but nodded. “Why didn’t the Council inform me like they usually do?”

Psiioniic shook his head. “I don’t know. But the Senate is voting today on whether or not to give more executive power to Peixes.”

Signless frowned, thinking back to Senator Maryam and the absurd security in the smaller sectors. Still, if Chancellor Peixes had more power the war would end a lot quicker, and that would mean getting back to Tatooine quicker and getting Disciple to safety quicker. He nodded resolutely. “Good. I want this war to end.”

Psiioniic’s lips tightened into a thin line. He took a deep breath and lowered his voice. “Signless, I trust you completely. You understand this, correct?”

Signless nodded slowly.

“I don’t trust Chancellor Peixes.”

Signless tilted his head. “Psiioniic, that’s treasonous. Yes, she can be a little over the top but she’s still our Chancellor.”

Psiioniic nodded quickly. “I know. I’m not going to do anything stupid. Just be careful around her, okay? Promise me you’ll be careful?”

Signless shrugged and nodded. “Of course, but Master, we’re all working to save the Republic. You of all people have always taught me to trust our leaders.”

“I’ve also always taught you to always stay vigilant.”

Signless nodded and assured his Master he’d be subjective. As he made his way out of the Temple his thoughts banged against the inside of his skull like someone shaking up a snow globe. Chancellor Peixes had always been kind to him. She made him uneasy at times but that was just because she was powerful. Signless was powerful too and it made people distrust him. Hell, almost the entire Jedi Council still wouldn’t let him be a full Master because they thought he was too unpredictable. Chancellor Peixes was just doing her job, just like he was. And ultimately they both had the same goals, to protect what they loved. She was trying to save the Republic. He was trying to save his family. That didn’t make her so bad.

Still, as the taxi landed and Signless rode the elevator up to Chancellor Peixes’s office something dark and heavy fell over him. He felt a little sick when he reached her floor but by the time her secretary let him in the feeling had passed.

“Signless!” she welcomed him in with a smile.

“Hello, Chancellor.”

She ushered him inside and offered him some candy. It was insanely childish of her but once, way back when he began his Jedi training, he asked her if she had anything sweet on a whim. He and Psiioniic had been stuck on a space station for weeks with nothing but rations. She had a bowl of candy sent up right away. It’d been their running joke for years. He took a red piece and followed her to the window.

Chancellor Peixes smiled down at him. A few fading pink cuts still adorned her face from the kidnapping but other than that she was looking better. Her smile turned tinged with sadness.

“I have made a very rough decision,” she started. “I hope you don’t think ill of me because of it.”

Signless frowned at her. She sighed weirdly, as if she was angry. Chancellor Peixes had a defined, sharp, angular face. He’d seen those features fall like that before. It happened every time she was given more power.

“The Senate is going to call upon me to be in charge of the Jedi Council.” She glanced at him like she was expecting him to be disappointed. Signless didn’t respond. That was… almost crossing a line… almost.

“So… we will no longer report to the Senate?” he asked. “How will we better serve the people of the Republic without their representatives?”

“The Jedi will report and answer to me. You’ve seen how the Senate works, Signless. They have so much at their disposal but never take the initiative to use it. When I am put in charge the Jedi will be used swiftly and effectively and will end this war.”

Signless sucked on the candy in his mouth thoughtfully. The Jedi were sovereign. Their rights should be indisputable. But the war had gone on for so long already….

“Why are you telling me all this?”

Her smile brightened a bit. “Because I value you, Signless. I value what you think and who you are. I want to know what someone of your standing feels about all this.”

Signless looked out over Coruscant. A light brown haze filled up the skyline from all the fires during the siege. Even Coruscant, the most protected Republic planet in the galaxy, was susceptible to attacks. How much longer till something happened he just couldn’t walk away from?

“I believe that this war needs to end and that if you believe this course of action will quicken that process, then so be it.” He turned to face her. “Honestly, Chancellor, I don’t like having to give up my rights as a Jedi but I will follow you in times like these. Problem is the other Jedi won’t. The Council will be very, very displeased.”

The Chancellor nodded gravely.

“I’m going to need you to be honest with me here, Signless.”

“Okay.”

“Do you trust me?”

“Yes, of course.”

He didn’t trust her at all, especially not after what Psiioniic had said or the events with Highblood, but he did trust her to win the war, to stop the dying, to stop the tidal wave of indifferent morals that had swept over the galaxy, that had begun to take over him as well. He didn’t trust her to save his life but he trusted her to use it for the good of the galaxy. Right now all Signless wanted was peace and he’d do anything to achieve that.

“I’m going to ask a favor of you Signless. I can’t force you to do anything but please, I am just shy of begging you…” she stopped to make sure he was looking into her eyes.

“What do you need?”

“The Council will not be pleased with this at all, you’re right. I know that the Order is good and that they do great things for this galaxy but sometimes autonomous ideals can corrode a democracy from the inside out. I fear they will lose trust in me. I fear that they already have. I just want them to be used to their fullest capacity, to do the most good.”

“The Jedi value the same things as the Republic.”

“I know, I know. But I need to know that they are handling my instructions adequately. I need you to do exactly what you are doing right now: being the best Jedi you can be, only now just pay a little more attention for me. In short, I’d be honored if you were my personal representative on the Council.”

She smiled humbly at him, even offering a slight bow. Signless couldn’t help but gasp.

“You’re promoting me to a Master? Ma’am I’m- I’m uh honored but the Council will never in their lives allow it.”

He smiled dumbly; like it was all some game the Chancellor was playing to flatter him. Chancellor Peixes did not smile back. Signless’s face fell when he realized this.

“I believe, Signless, that in the near future the Council will realize just how valuable you really are.”

And Signless didn’t know if that made him excited or scared.


	5. Nightlife

The pillow smashed against the little wall of Signless’s darkened room. He bit back a growl as he ripped the sheets off his bed and threw them at the wall as well. He kicked the bed frame. The metal snapped. For a second he almost believed the metallic bang that had resulted was in his mind. He stopped, still breathing heavily. When he knelt down he saw the metal frame had snapped all the way up the side. He licked his lips. His foot didn’t hurt at all. He hadn’t kicked it that hard. His face scrunched up in agony as he fell to the floor realizing he had used the Force without meaning to. He raked his claws over his hair, scraping his hands a bit on his horns.

“Time,” he croaked out. The little clock on his monitor lit up. 3:46 in the morning. He held his knees close to him and tried to calm down but images of Disciple dying played themselves over and over every time he did. Awful things accompanied her. Severed limbs sinking in pools of boiling lava. Psiioniic screaming but he could never hear what he was saying. Karkat and Kanaya yelling and crying out. Jedi dying. Someone killing them. Night after night it kept happening. So much death. Redglare said to let go of fear but how could he let go of this? It wouldn’t end. It wouldn’t let him let go. All he wanted to do was go home. All he wanted was his family.

Signless sunk onto his side biting his shirt so that his gasping, scared breathing wouldn’t be too loud. He pulled his knees up to his chest and held them tight, as close to him as he could. He wanted to hold Disciple but she’d been staying later and later in Senate meetings he didn’t understand. Signless bit his cheeks and hounded himself for crying. He forced himself to sit up and wipe the snot off his face.

“Tranquilizer,” he spat at the monitor.

“ID please, this is a dangerous item and should not be used by any person or persons who do not intend on using this substance properly.”

“Shut up,” Signless grumbled as he typed. A little slip on the bottom of the device popped open and revealed a small hypodermic needle.

“Would you like to make a mission report?” the monitor asked.

Signless groaned and went into settings to clear the data saying he had ever requested it. Psiioniic taught him that little trick ages ago. After the evidence was erased he made his bed and lay down. He still had an hour and a half of sleep left and damn if he wasn’t going to get it. He did the math of his weight and the time and injected just a little bit of what was in the syringe. The darkness turned absolute and led him into a black, dreamless sleep.

 

The next day he felt like shit standing in front of the Council doors. Signless rubbed his eyes while he waited. He was mid-yawn when the doors began to open. He awkwardly snapped his mouth shut and walked in. Summoner, Redglare, Psiioniic, and two of the other Masters looked at him as he slowed to a stop in the center of the room. The last member of the Council was displayed as a hologram. He nodded to all of them politely.

“Signless,” Summoner said with a tight smile. “The Council accepts your appointed position on the Council as Chancellor Peixes’s personal representative.”

“Thank you, sir. I will do my best on this Council for the Jedi Order and the Republic,” he said respectfully. Despite his fatigue it did inflate his ego a bit too actually be on the Council.

As if sensing his hint of smugness, Redglare spoke up. “I hope you realize that we are not taking this invasion on our independence lightly. As you very well know the Dark side is restless. The last thing we need is an upset like this to trigger a mistake on our part.”

Had he been a little more awake he wouldn’t have, but his face twitched at her words. An upset? It was like she was accusing Chancellor Peixes for taking action in a stagnant time of inaction from the Senate. He nodded at her, facing her red glasses evenly.

“That being said,” continued Summoner, “you may be on this Council but we do not grant you the rank of Master.”

Signless sighed and closed his eyes for three seconds before nodding. They all knew he was the most powerful person in this room, in the whole entire Order and yet… still they had to hold him back. They said he needed to let go of fear. What about their fear of him?

Summoner cleared his throat. Signless shook himself out of his brooding and took a seat. The Council continued with its meeting like he wasn’t even there.

“There is still no sign of Noir in any of the systems.”

“Well obviously he’s hiding in the Outer Rim then. There’s nowhere else for him to be.”

“Send a crew to sweep it then.”

Psiioniic piped up. “We don’t have that many ships to spare.”

Summoner agreed. “Every ship we have needs to stay where the real fighting is.”

“But if the droids regroup we’ll be back where we started,” someone added.

“Master Psiioniic, wait for your spies to contact you and see where you can go from there,” Redglare interjected. Psiioniic nodded.

“What about the Wookiees? They’ll be slaughtered if that droid attack reached them before we set up help.”

“We cannot afford to lose that system,” Psiioniic said. “Half our navigation routes would be lost.”

Signless thought that maybe it’d be safe to speak after Psiioniic. “I know that system well,” he offered, “I could set up the battlefront there and give us more time to drive the droids out.”

Summoner shook his gigantic horns. “No, your mission is here with Chancellor Peixes. Psiioniic will find Noir.”

“And I’ll speak with the Wookiees,” Redglare added.

Everyone looked around for comments. There were none. Summoner concluded the meeting.

Signless trudged off as soon as it ended. Psiioniic didn’t even catch up with him until he was three halls away.

“Signless!” he called.

Signless groaned and turned around. “What?” he spat. Psiioniic scowled at him.

“What’s up your ass?”

Signless sighed and leaned against the wall. “What do you think? The Council thinks I’m a joke and don’t trust me at all. I could be helping! I could be on the Wookie front or going with you to search the Outer Rim! And they didn’t even make me a Master! I’m ready for the trials and I’m ready for this bullshit to end. ‘Your mission is with here with Chancellor Peixes’. What the hell is that even supposed to mean?”

“Signless,” Psiioniic almost whispered. “Are you okay?”

He opened his mouth to spit out something else but just ended up yawning instead. “What do you care?”

Psiioniic actually looked hurt. Signless immediately wanted to crawl into a hole and die. Psiioniic rubbed his arm and that drove it home. He always rubbed his scares when anything concerned Signless. He’d crossed a line.

“What do I care?” he asked incredulous. “Signless, before I am your elder, before I am a higher rank, and ever before I am or ever was your Master I am your friend. I care about you. I care about this. What’s gotten into you?”

Signless walked over to a bench and plopped down loudly. “I just want it to be over. I want this to end.”

“Fuck…” Psiioniic breathed as he sat down slowly next to him. Signless knew that tone. His head snapped towards Psiioniic.

“What? What are you gonna make me do?”

Psiioniic couldn’t face him. “I’m sorry.” It sounded sincere. “To put it bluntly the Council wants you to spy on the Chancellor.”

Signless actually whimpered. He was too tired for this. “Why?” he whined quietly. “Chancellor Peixes is just doing her job! She’s just trying to end this damn war! Why does the Council want me to spy on her? That’s against the Code! It’s against the Republic!”

“Signless you aren’t blind. The Republic and the Chancellor are no longer one and the same. You’re the one so obsessed with politics. Look at the galaxy. The Senate no longer exists! Peixes had appointed her own little governors for each sector that answer to her. Everything is under her thumb. You talk of the Republic, where is the people’s say?”

“Are you saying that’s all I am to her? Just someone under her thumb?” Signless asked from behind his hands.

Psiioniic groaned. “I warned you about her.”

“She’s not a bad person!” he persisted.

Psiioniic bit his lip. “If that’s true then we have nothing to worry about.”

“And if it’s not?”

Psiioniic closed his eyes. “Then you’re in more danger than any of us.”

 

After Psiioniic left to see Redglare off Signless took a stroll through the mid layer of the city. It was odd. He’d walk through a street devastated by the attack. Huge construction vehicles and workers worked to repair the damage. Then the next street there’d be nothing but the background noise from the last.

He made his way aimlessly, only stopping to get something caffeinated when his eyelids grew heavy. People tried to pick him up or sell him drugs. He just smiled at them and wondered if the war had hurt them to. A little human boy ran up to him asking if he could buy a raffle ticket for something as small as a gift basket. The kid’s school uniform was dirty but his smile was bright. Signless bought three tickets and gave them and thirty credits to a lady with an ‘anything helps’ sign.

The darker the sky got the more the city picked up. He bought another coffee and sat on a bench in a little square a few levels lower. Some little band played music by a fountain. Signless thought it sounded beautiful. The square was strange because it had a ceiling and a floor. The wonders of Coruscant. Both surfaces were frosted glass and sparkled with the lights both above and below.

Signless’s heart beat fast and it seemed with every beat his headache got worse. He finally hailed a taxi for Disciple’s apartment. The sky was as black as it could get in a city like this and he hoped he wasn’t going to wake her.

When he got there the door was locked and she wasn’t answering her com. That was odd, so he broke into the vacant apartment above her and dropped down onto her balcony. After he jimmied her lock open he found a place to sit and closed his eyes. The apartment was empty. He wouldn’t let himself sleep, though. Every time he got close to drifting he would get up and shake himself awake again.

Eventually he heard the door begin to open and he stole outside to stand quietly by one of the metal pillars on the balcony. He could hear Disciple biding goodnight to her handmaidens. He thought he heard AR with her to but the droid’s clunky footsteps faded as well.

Disciple walked out onto the balcony with a wistful sigh. There was still just a hint of stars above the cityscape. Signless cleared his throat. Disciple spun around, eyes wide until she realized it were him. Then she smiled. Then she frowned.

“Signless you look horrible.”

He rubbed his eyes. “I feel horrible. I barely slept at all last night.”

She walked over to him and immediately put a hand to his forehead. She shook her head. “You’re all clammy.” She took him into the bathroom to wash his face and he just let her. He told her about his walk through the city and about all the coffee he drank and about the music.

“I thought you never had caffeine?”

“I’ve never drank a full cup until today.”

He let her lead him to her bed and lay him down. Once she was comfortably beside him under the silky sheets she asked him what he had been dreading so much.

“Nightmares?”

He nodded but didn’t say anything else. He wanted to hold her and not speak of what he’d been dreaming of. She looked at him with concern painted over all of her beautiful, strong features. He thumbed her thick eyebrows, beautiful even with their worry dragging them down. He lightly stoked the lines that had suddenly appeared in the corner of her eyes. He held her strong jaw and gazed at her thin, pursed, black lips. His hands ghosted up and down her toned arms.

“Fuck I can’t get my heart to stop beating out of my chest,” he mumbled.

“Caffeine has a half-life of six hours, Signless. You’re gonna be pretty jittery for a while,” she said softly stroking his hair. “Why did you do this?”

He rolled flat on his back and took a deep breath. Disciple rested her head on his chest facing him. He watched her big green eyes as her head moved up and down slightly with his shallow breathing. He could tell she was listening to his frantic heartbeat.

“So much is happening Disciple I feel like I’m falling apart. The nightmares are the least of my problems yet still what I worry about the most,” he told her while playing with her hair.

“I worry about you,” she said. “What about your appointment to the Council? Did that not go well?”

He scoffed softly and yawned. His body wanted so badly to sleep but the caffeine coursing through him wouldn’t let it happen. “The whole thing is a sham. The Council wouldn’t even promote me to Master. They don’t even recognize me and they hate Chancellor Peixes. They know how in tune I am with the Force and yet they refuse to do anything about it.”

“You’ve got to be patient. The Order doesn’t do anything without a lot of thought,” she reminded him.

“Yeah well sometimes I think they’re thinking the wrong thing.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean they don’t trust Chancellor Peixes and I think that a mentality like that is going to rip the Republic apart more than this whole damn war is!”

Her brow furled with concern again. He felt a wave of uneasiness roll off her that he didn’t need the Force to recognize. “What?” he asked.

“I’m scared.”

He held her closer. “Scared of what?”

“I’m scared that the Senators don’t have power anymore. I’m scared that Peixes is taking away our voice. I’m scared that the Republic is already falling apart, or turning into something awful and evil. I’m scared for you and what all this is doing for you. I’m scared about what our government is becoming.”

Signless kissed her forehead and laughed softly. “Wow. You sound like Psiioniic.”

She laughed anxiously into his chest. “Is that a bad thing?”

He kissed her again, this time on the lips. The Senate was losing their voice. The Jedi were losing their say. Without representatives that meant that all the people on all those star systems didn’t have a vote either. Signless sure didn’t have a choice.

“But what if she ends the war?” he asked in a small voice. Disciple gave him a confused look. “What if she stops all the fighting? Disciple, I’ve done bad things during this war. I’ve killed people. I want it to end. I need to believe she can end it, by any means necessary.”

Disciple closed her eyes and pushed closer into his chest. “But what if she’s the reason the fighting hasn’t stopped? What if her actions are prolonging it?”

He held her tightly and tried not to think about what she just said. He couldn’t allow himself to believe that, not after all those years under her command, not after the awful things he’d done in her name. That’d mean all the lives he took were in vain.

“Will you stay with me until I fall asleep?” he asked soft enough to where he almost hoped she didn’t hear him.

She nodded into his chest.


	6. The Galactic Gardens

Signless slept without nightmares but that may have just been because of all the caffeine. His com beeped early the next morning, painfully pulling him out of his peaceful sleep. He groggily turned, sighing into Disciple’s back. She shivered. His nose was cold.

He grasped around for his comlink and found it in a pile with his clothes and his lightsaber.

“What time is it?” Disciple yawned.

“Just after six,” he grumbled, rifling through his pockets in search for the beeping device.

Disciple frowned and yawned again before shoving her face into her pillow. She turned so that her voice wouldn’t be muffled. “My maidens will be here any minute…”

Signless groaned. “Do they at least knock?”

She turned on a light and trudged up to the monitor on the wall to type something in. “There, I gave us an extra half hour,” she announced before falling back into bed and tugging the sheets up around her. The apartment was cold in the morning. Signless stepped out of the room and closed the window.

“Who messaged you?” Disciple asked with her eyes still closed.

Signless sighed. “Peixes. She wants me to meet her at the Galactic Gardens. I should get going.” He put on his day old clothes and washed his face. Disciple got out of bed and joined him in the bathroom. They brushed their teeth and got ready together like they always did when he spent the night. He loved being with her in the mornings. It took her at least an hour to actually wake up and she smiled half lidded back at you whenever you smiled at her the whole time.

Signless smiled at her when he reached her door. The sun was already slanting over the tall buildings outside. She smiled back at him beautifully.

“I love you,” he said casually after he kissed her.

“I love you too.” She took his hand and kissed that to. He took one last longing glance at her before stealing out the door.

 

Darkleer met him at the entrance to the Gardens.

“Signless!” he greeted him with a pat on the back. Signless stiffened. He didn’t really see Darkleer a lot anymore. He made a lot of decisions for Naboo Disciple didn’t agree with. Chancellor Peixes had made him governor of Naboo, too. His conversion with Psiioniic flashed back to him.

“How are you?” Darkleer smiled. He was still as strong and fit as ever and still sported the same pair of tinted glasses. He didn’t look tired at all.

Signless smiled politely and made small talk as the big troll lead him through the Gardens. After all his time on Coruscant he’d still never been. It was an enormous facility dedicated to the horticulture of the galaxy. Different levels of the Gardens were dedicated to different environments and filled with plants from thousands of different planets. He wondered if he could find some of those dessert flowers for Disciple.

Darkleer lead him through the arboretum foyer and around a side hall. The jungle environments harbored the most the species so of course the entire pavilion at the bottom of the building was filled with the plants from that region. The floors were arranged like hallow squares so the towering jungle trees from below reached up and up through the center of the building to the open air roof. Tropical birds flew or perched on the trees and sang hauntingly. Bug noises echoed in the empty halls. There weren’t a lot of people there in the morning. The air smelled fresh. Signless felt very glad the place hadn’t been damaged in the attack.

He and Darkleer took an elevator down to one of the middle floors where the aquatic plant life was displayed. They found Peixes on a bench staring longingly at a glass tank filled with glowing blue stalks of some kind of aquatic vine. It was cold on this floor.

“Darkleer! Signless!” she exclaimed happily when she saw them. They bowed respectfully. She nodded to Darkleer and dismissed him before offering Signless a seat.

“Gorgeous, isn’t it?” she asked dreamily. Signless nodded. “They’re only found deep in the seas of Alternia and Beforus. They’re on a biological clock that never changes no matter what environment or planet they grow on. They always glow blue when it’s night on the home planets. I grew them all over my castle back home.”

Signless gazed at the gently swaying stalks. It was quite mesmerizing, like gentle stars were pulsing inside the xylem and phloem. “Which planet were you hatched on?” he asked.

“Alternia. I don’t tell many people this but Gl'bgolyb is actually my lusus,” she smiled fondly. Signless’s eyes widened and Peixes laughed. “Oh yes! She still exists and she is still a threat to all trolls in the galaxy, if you were wondering, but she’s fine. A little fuchsia grub was just hatched a few weeks ago, actually. They’re calling her Feferi, and Gl'bgolyb has taken a liking to her.” Signless saw the little hint of pain in Chancellor Peixes’s eyes when she said that. Peixes knew it too. She quickly changed the subject.

“But that’s not what I brought you here to tell you. I have good news! Our spies found General Noir! He’s been spotted in the Utapau system,” she informed him with a little clap of her hands.

Signless lit up. “That’s wonderful! The sooner we can find him the sooner we can end this!”

Peixes nodded. “I do hope the mission is going to be assigned to you, though, if I’m being honest. I know Psiioniic will most likely be chosen, and though he is a capable and well mastered Jedi I feel you would make much quicker work of the job.”

Signless shrugged. If he was being honest he would prefer to go _with_ Psiioniic. The two of them could get any job done faster together than alone. He didn’t say that though.

She took his silence with a sad smile. “They make the silliest decisions sometimes. “ He nodded. “Silly decisions can cost wins in battle. Signless, I love the Jedi. I love what they stand for, but it seems to me like I can’t trust them to think clearly anymore.”

Signless nodded slowly. He knew what she was doing. She was trying to pit him against the Jedi. The reason he knew she was doing that was because the Jedi had tried to pit him against her. But he wasn’t taking sides. He was standing for himself and Disciple and Karkat and Kanaya now. His side was with whomever could keep them safest.

“The Jedi are planning to betray me,” she said matter-of-factly.  Signless frowned at her.

“Why do you say that?”

She shrugged. “Isn’t it obvious what they’re doing? They want the Republic for themselves. It’s their rules or no rules. They can’t stand to share their resources with me. I really do believe they even have some Senators rooting for my demise as well. It could turn our fragile political state into upheaval if they attempt to usurp me now.”

Signless took in her words cautiously. What she said made sense… more sense than Psiioniic or Disciple’s vague suspicions. Hell, all Chancellor Peixes wanted him to do was represent her. The Council asked him to actually break the Code.

“Did they ask you to do something?” Peixes asked, reading his thoughts.

Signless’s shoulders sagged. He couldn’t answer. “I don’t know who to trust anymore,” he admitted.

“Trust yourself, Signless,” she said softly. “Think back to everything you learned early on. What did you learn about power?”

“People with power will do anything to keep it that way.”

“Especially Jedi.”

He frowned at her. She continued, “The Jedi delude themselves into believing everything they do is just and right. I can admit I’ve made mistakes. I can say that some of my actions over this war have broken barriers that should not have been broken. I admit I have made mistakes. Honestly Signless I don’t think I can say I’m a good person, but at least I can say I will try to atone for my wrongs. The Jedi don’t live that way.”

He listened to her words and watched the glowing leaves and remembered every conversation where Psiioniic wouldn’t admit that he was wrong, where he wouldn’t give any ground or even doubt the Jedi way.

“And they say Sith are arrogant,” he chuckled humorlessly.

Peixes nodded gravely. “The only difference between a Jedi and a Sith is that Jedi try to do no wrong and warp their mindset to make it seem like that’s what they’re doing whereas Sith will do what needs to be done and deal with the actuality of their decisions.”

Signless shook his head. “I don’t believe that. Warping realities is something every delusional society does. Jedi kill out of good intentions and find a way to say that made it okay. Sith kill out of passion and convince themselves that was okay too. At least the Jedi think of others first. Sith are selfish.”

“But you’re talking about individuals. What about the Orders as a whole? Do you think if every Jedi convinced themselves that what they were doing was good anyone would ever question it, even if it was bad? Following your passion doesn’t make you evil. Do you ever think Sith are just trying to do what _they_ think is right?”

Signless scoffed. “I think they’re all crazy.”

“Then why do you follow their orders?”

_Lady, half the time I don’t,_ he thought. He sighed and said, “I do what I think is best in the situation. And if that makes me as bad as them then so be it. I’ve done things under the Jedi that I don’t like but hey, I’ve done things under you that I really don’t like either so what’s the point?” Signless felt the bitterness oozing from his diction but didn’t really care.

“Like what?”

“Like killing those ‘renegades’ in villages on the Outer Rim or taking out Highblood. Those were lives that didn’t need to be lost.”

“I asked you to do those things because I believed it would ensure the safety of the galaxy. I still believe you did this Republic a great service. I don’t hide things from you or the Jedi. So why are the Jedi morphing you into something you’re not? Are you a spy? Are you a traitor? What are you Signless?”

“I’m confused.”

“Confusion is spread by fear. What do you fear?”

“Death.”

Peixes’s eyes lit up for a short moment. “You know, there’s an old legend that says there’s a way to stop death.”

Signless looked into her eyes carefully. In the low light the pink of her irises shined iridescent and captivating. “Whose legend?”

“A Sith legend. They say there are many ways in which the Force can be taught to do things… quite unnatural I suppose. One Lord even figured out how to use midi-chlorians to prevent people from dying. The Dark side can be very… unorthodox in that way. She couldn’t save herself in the end, though. Eventually her apprentice killed her.”

Signless rubbed circles around his thumb. The Chancellor was scaring him. Everything she said about the Jedi made sense. Everything she said about power and the Order… it amplified everything he’d been feeling for years. He gulped hard and asked slowly.

“Is it possible to learn how to use the Force like that?”

Chancellor Peixes shrugged. “How should I know?”


	7. Conversations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My keyboard's 3, e, d, and c keys aren't working but it's okay. I haven't had much time to write anyway but still, I need to get it fixed before winter break so I can finish #4 sooner rather than later.

Footsteps echoed down the long halls of the Temple. Psiioniic stopped and waited for Summoner to catch up to him. Summoner greeted him with an uneasy nod as they both walked towards the same meeting room.

“How did Signless take his mission?” he asked quietly.

Psiioniic cringed and slowed his walk. Summoner’s enormous wings fluttered impatiently. “He’s not happy,” Psiioniic admitted. “Then again why would he be? He’s too close to Peixes.”

Summoner nodded and kept walking, prompting Psiioniic to follow but Psiioniic stayed put. “I’m worried about him,” Psiioniic said.

“You’re always worried about him,” Summoner reminded him, nodding down the hall. They were going to be late.

Psiioniic didn’t budge. “I would die for Signless, and I trust that in some convoluted circumstance he would lay down his life for me too, but he’s scaring me. He hasn’t been himself at all.”

“Do you think he’ll fail us?” Summoner asked with a suspicious air darkening his features. Everything on his face was big. Big eyebrows. Big eyes. Big, flat nose. Big lips. Big chin. All of his expressions seemed magnified constantly. The worry spread across his face like wildfire.

“No,” answered Psiioniic immediately. “Signless would never betray the Order. Before anything he’s a Jedi. I know this. He’s the Chosen One, after all.”

“Do you still believe that?” Summoner asked suddenly. Psiioniic was taken aback. He wanted to defend his friend tooth and claw. Of course Signless was the Chosen One! Who else could it be! He was a troll with _red blood_. There were no others in the galaxy. But he didn’t say all that.

“I know Signless can be reckless but he’s a good man,” Psiioniic said.

“He’s angry. It’ll be the end of him,” Summoner responded resolutely. Psiioniic didn’t reply all the way to the meeting room.

 

They were a little late. Signless gave him a smug, befuddled look when they entered but Psiioniic shrugged it off. The one other Council member was waiting for them. The rest were displayed on a little hologram table. Psiioniic nodded to them all and stood beside Signless.

Redglare’s hologram started them off. “Now that we’re all here we may proceed. Chancellor Peixes informed us this morning that General Noir has been spotted in Utapau. We have no reports to certify these claims.”

Signless spoke up next to Psiioniic. “Actually we received word from the Chairman of Utapau late last night of his whereabouts.”

There was an awkward pause. Summoner bristled across the table. Another member spoke what they were all thinking. “Our sources reported he wasn’t there.”

Redglare swept the conversation along. “The source doesn’t matter. All that does is that he’s there and that we apprehend him immediately and end this war. We don’t have time to be indecisive about trivial things, yes?” Everyone nodded.

A little movement caught Psiioniic’s eye. Signless was rubbing circles around his thumb, a little nervous tick he’d picked up about a year ago. Signless took a breath and announced evenly, “Chancellor Peixes requested that I lead the attack on Utapau.”

Psiioniic felt the atmosphere of the room light like a live wire. All the Jedi’s eyes fell on Signless but Signless didn’t flinch.

“The Chancellor doesn’t make our decisions for us,” a tall Council member announced. Everyone nodded. Psiioniic noted that the Council collectively took Signless breaking eye contact as a sign of defeat.

“We need someone with more experience. The only Master available is Psiioniic, at this time,” Redglare stated. “Should we send him?”

Psiioniic didn’t respond. He saw Signless’s head pop back up. “Psiioniic wasn’t able to defeat Noir last time.” Signless gave a little shrug towards Psiioniic and Psiioniic just took a deep breath. It was true, after all. Noir had slipped away from him no problem. He slipped away from Signless to, but…

“As much as it pains me to say that Signless is correct in that point,” Psiioniic said in his own defense, “I have more experience fighting Noir and I’ve been on his tail ever since he wormed out of the woodwork.”

All around the room Jedi nodded. From where he was standing he could see Signless’s clenched fists. He hoped he was okay. Redglare sounded from the holotable. “It’s agreed then? Master Psiioniic will be sent to apprehend General Noir?” The people nodded, even Signless grudgingly. “Good. Council adjourned.” The images of her and the other holographic Jedi flickered out.

Signless turned on his heel to leave. Psiioniic went after him but Summoner stopped him. “How many clone brigades will you need?” he asked. Psiioniic blinked at him. Summoner cleared his throat. “There’s no telling how many droids Noir has holed up on Utapau,” he clarified.

“Oh!” said Psiioniic. He turned his focus away from Signless’s fleeting form. “Have at least two ready for departure. If you can, I prefer squads I’ve worked with before but if not that’s fine.”

Summoner nodded and with that Psiioniic dashed out of the room to catch up with his former Padawan. When he reached the hall a few Council members were milling about but no sign of Signless. He asked where he went and they shook their heads. Signless was out the door before anyone else.

Psiioniic spent a good few minutes looking for his friend but to no avail. Signless had disappeared like he didn’t want to be found. He slumped against a secluded wall and held up his hands, repeating Signless’s name over and over in his head. His index fingers exploded. Psiioniic yelped as the energy crackled off his skin, shaking his hands about to try and alleviate it. When he looked back at his hands residual energy sparked off his fingertips. They were smoking. His claws felt like they were still burning.

Breathing hard, he held his hands out again, farther apart this time. He did a sweep of the hall to make sure no one was coming down it. After taking a deep breath to steady himself, he thought Signless’s name as quietly as he could. A burst of energy exploded just as violently as before but this time he was ready for it. His arms ached as he stared into the blinding lights trapped between his digits.

The dark lines, his indexes, were spewing out streams of red and blue so bright it almost looked white. He choked back a gasp. He’d never seen them that bright. He squinted at his ring fingers, the light lines. By comparison it was pathetic, just as dull as his thumbs. Good lines. His pinkies were on fire. Bad. And his middle fingers burned steady and bright. Fate.

He tore his hands apart. His fingertips buzzed into a stinging that he hoped would be replaced by numbness instead of nerve damage. Good, bad, dark, light, fate… he knew they were shitty names for this gift the Force had given him but hey, he wasn’t good with words. Whatever he called it, it still meant something _disastrous_ was about to happen. His hands were never wrong.

Psiioniic tore at his comlink and sent a quick message to Signless telling him to call him but he got the haunting feeling his friend wasn’t going to pick up. There was one thing left to do. He took a moment to construct a well flowing string of profanities to convey his utter and complete sense of _fuck my life_ before heading to the elevator and making his way outside. He hailed a taxi.

“Senate apartments,” he said in a voice of disbelief. He didn’t think he’d be doing this today.

 

Psiioniic walked up to Disciple’s door then walked away. He walked back and cringed and walked away again. He marched up to the unassuming metal door and held up a fist to knock then pulled it back and silently screamed at the top of his lungs and punched the air instead. He turned around and faced the window. “You’re a Jedi Master. You’ve fought wars,” he told himself. “You once stabbed a man over a yellow and black jacket. Knock on your fucking best friend’s girlfriend’s door!”

He took a deep breath and stopped his whisperings and turned around to face Disciple standing with her arms crossed in her doorway looking at him with one raised eyebrows and pursed lips.

Psiioniic screamed internally. “Senator. I take it you have… security cameras… to show what’s outside your door.”

She nodded slowly for a long time before breaking into a slow and good natured smile. It was her off day. Her hair was in a braid and she wore a simple shirt and pants. To the entire world she could have just hopped off a flight from Naboo. “Would you like to come in?” she asked with a laugh. Psiioniic broke a little inside and nodded.

“Would you like some tea?” she asked as they walked in.

“Hot water is fine, thank you.”

She bustled around the large apartment and made small talk as she used the little device in the kitchen to boil the water. Psiioniic’s bleak ambiance shrouded him like a fog. Disciple noticed immediately. When she set the little tray down on the coffee table she didn’t ask any more mediocre questions or comment on the Senate. She fixed her tea and Psiioniic mixed some citrus into his water. After that was done she looked him in the eyes.

“Alright. What’s wrong, Psiioniic. You’re scaring me.”

Psiioniic looked at her kind, strong face and the lines by her eyes. They’d gotten so much more defined. “I’m worried about Signless.” Disciple took a slow sip of her tea and waited. Psiioniic continued. “He’s been very angry lately, more so than usual and it scares me.”

“Has he done something?” she asked quietly.

Psiioniic shook his head. “Not yet, but Chancellor Peixes has put him in a very uncomfortable position. I fear that he’s confused. Has he said anything to you?”

Disciple’s face was a mask of innocence. “No, he doesn’t talk about the Jedi much to me.”

Psiioniic’s heart cried out. He could feel the waves of fear rolling off her. He steeled himself for what was coming next. “Disciple, I’m Signless’s best friend. Do you know what that means?”

She shook her head.

“It means I realize that he’s in love before he does.”

She quickly set her cup down with an accidental _crash._ “I don’t know what you’re-“

He silenced her by raising his eyebrows and sighing. “Have you seen a change in him since we got back from the Outer Rim?”

She nodded slowly.

“I know you two have been in love a very long time,” he stated softly. Disciple clenched her jaw and eyed the floor but her normal fiery words didn’t even dare deny it. “He’s never been this way before. Please, I can’t stand to see him like this. What happened?”

She shook her head and whispered truthfully, “I don’t know.” Her hands shook violently. Psiioniic wanted to take them and hold her and tell her it was okay. He’d been watching her grow up almost as long as he’d been watching Signless. He almost felt responsible for her and Signless both. He moved his hand close to hers where she could see what he was doing. She didn’t move away from it so he took her hand gently. She squeezed his fingers hard. They still tingled.

“Please-” she said throatily.

“I’m not going to tell the Council,” he assured her. Her grip eased up just a little bit. “I just want him to be okay. I don’t want either of you to get hurt.” He felt she wasn’t telling him something but didn’t push it.

“Psiioniic…” she started. He looked into her eyes. There was a fight going on in them. Obviously she wanted to tell him something but couldn’t by some contract or agreement she couldn’t bear to break.

He shook his head. “It’s okay. You don’t have to tell me everything. Just… help him. If you can. Please.”

She nodded at him. “You do to, okay?” she asked. He nodded. The two of them finished their hot drinks in silence. As he got up to leave Disciple surprised him with a hug. It was so childlike he stood for a moment stunned. She simply buried her head in his chest and flung her arm around his waist. Good thing she was so much shorter than him. Her sharp horns fit just around his neck. He gently wrapped his arms around her and rested his chin on her head. Her hug hurt his ribs, six of which had been broken by Highblood at the start of the war, but he didn’t care. He let her hug him as tight as she wanted for as long as she wanted which only lasted about half a minute. She let go just as abruptly as she latched on and nodded a thanks before showing him out the door.

Psiioniic waited until he was outside of the security camera’s range to rub his throbbing torso.


	8. Farewell

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Keyboard still out so I appologize if editing was strange. I dropped it in a Google Drive and have been working from my phone.

 

Thousands of Stormtroopers were being loaded on the Republic assault ship. They marched heavily and professionally like they always did, their hooked and curved horns rising and falling in unison. It was always a sight to see clones in a formation. Signless watched the commotion from the landing dock until a little tingling signaled at the back of his neck. He turned around and saw Psiioniic striding towards him. He smiled apologetically at his Master. He had acted so childish a few hours earlier.

“Master,” he said with a bow. Psiioniic smiled crookedly back at him. “That’s a lot of troops you got,” he noted nodding to the brigades behind him.

Psiioniic shrugged. “Hey, hopefully this might be the end and we can finish all this once and for all.” He shrugged again. “Or maybe it’s all a false alarm. Who knows?”

“I really wish I was coming with you on this one,” Signless admitted over the noise of so many clones marching.

“Me too,” Psiioniic agreed earnestly. “You need to get out of Coruscant.”

Signless frowned at the comment but understood. Ever since they got back his emotions had been about as predictable as a snowstorm on Hoth. The truth must do that to you. He nodded at his friend. Psiioniic didn’t feel right today. It bothered him.  Psiioniic saw the face he was making and tilted his head.

“I’ve been irrational lately. I know. You deserve better than to have to deal with all my needless angst,” Signless laughed but he really meant it. Psiioniic was his best friend. He would never willingly put him in a bad situation. It was the Council that was just screwing him over. “I’ve just been frustrated with all this secrecy, that’s all.”

Psiioniic nodded in a weary, understanding way. “Signless you haven’t disappointed me. If anything you’ve been worrying me. I just want you to be okay. And I know you’re frustrated. You’ve grown into an amazing Jedi and fast to. Think about this from my point of view, you’ve saved my ass so many times I’d be dead in a week of something happened to you. “

Signless hollered. Just like Psiioniic to never allow himself a moment. “A week?” he asked. “You really think you’d last that long without me?”

Psiioniic heaved a dramatic sigh. “Don’t push it. Geeze, you’ll be a Master in no time. Then what am I gonna do?” The departing alarm signaled from the assault ship. Psiioniic started walking away backwards.

“Don’t worry!” Signless called. “You can’t get rid of me that easily! I’ll always find you eventually!”

Psiioniic laughed, barely audible through the thrusters revving up. “I don’t doubt it, my friend! May the Force be with you!”

Signless waved him off. “May the Force be with you!” he called but he was fairly certain his voice was swept away by the air being jettisoned through the colossal machine. As Psiioniic disappeared into the blast doors Signless’s smile fell. A strange feeling of sadness swept over him, loss, almost. A whisper of a precognitive déjà vu, the feeling of something he hadn’t yet felt. Signless blinked. The feeling was gone along with the tails of Psiioniic’s cape.

Signless waited for Chancellor Peixes in the arrival hall of the Senate building. The interior of the Senate building was all curving halls surrounding a huge auditorium in the center where Senate was actually held. Signless had never actually been inside that room but he’d seen it enough times on broadcast. Like the rest of the building, the room looked patterned and sleek.

In a few minutes a little dot in the sky grew into a full sized luxury transport car. It hovered over the landing platform and touched down gently. The bronze side door popped open. Chancellor Peixes’s bright, lengthy horns were the first thing out of the ship. She smiled at him when she stepped out followed by a few Senators and officials.

“Signless!” she sang. “Thank you for meeting me here! Did you see Psiioniic off?”

Signless nodded. She held out her hand towards his waist. He crooked his elbow so she could slip her hand into his arm as they walked. “I do hope the Council made a good decision,” she told him with concern. “I don’t know what we’d do if Noir got away again.”

“The Council doesn’t make mistakes often,” Signless assured her but even as he said it he was worried about Psiioniic. Noir was a dangerous creature.

They passed a few Senators and officials in the hall. Darkleer spotted them and nodded to them politely. Chancellor Peixes waved back.

“You know,” the Chancellor said almost hesitantly, “There have been a few rumors going around about your friend Psiioniic.” Signless shot a look at her. “It’s most likely nothing but as an official of my status I must keep an ear listening to such talk at all times.”

“What do they say?” he asked.

Peixes shrugged. “They just think he’s unfit for this assignment, that’s all.”

“Why would they think that?”

The Chancellor shook her head. “I’ve heard a Senator is influencing him. Who? I have no idea. But the gossip says he’s judgment is being skewed significantly.”

“I’d know about that,” Signless said more confident than he felt. Was that what he felt of the landing platform? Chancellor Peixes shrugged into his shoulder.

“Really that’s all it is, though. Gossip,” she said. “I’m not too concerned. Master Psiioniic hasn’t let us down before.” She laughed and continued with Signless down the hall. Signless bit back an uncomfortable suspicion about which Senator this rumor could be about.

He sat through the little meeting Chancellor Peixes needed him for without much interest. It was all for publicity and everyone knew it. All the Chancellor did was inform every one of the decisive actions she was taking. Signless had heard it all before but he needed to be there for ‘image’ or whatever.

As soon as it was all over, he respectively declined dinner with the governors and took a speeder to the next building over, the Senate apartments. There was no need to break into Disciple’s apartment tonight, she answered the door when he knocked. It was her off day. She was already in a pair of silky pajamas.

She smiled at him when she opened the door. As soon as he was inside and it was closed she pulled him into a kiss. Signless leaned into her and lifted her up. He closed his eyes and just pretended everything was alright. It was a forgery of a moment but he could take it.

Disciple let go of him and walked back into her room where she had a few dresses laying on the bed. Signless got a glass of water for himself and took a seat on the couch next to the coffee table. He felt a presence he knew well.

“Hey,” he called, “was Psiioniic here, by any chance?”

“Yeah,” said Disciple as she walked out of her room. “He was here this morning.”

Signless took a breath. Why hadn’t Psiioniic told him? Something about his Master was starting to feel tainted. “Why did he come?” Signless asked.

Disciple sat down next to him. Her eyes had gotten big. “He’s worried about you.”

Signless closed his eyes and leaned his head back on the soft couch. “He knew about us, didn’t he?” He opened his eyes to see Disciple nod guiltily and closed them again.

“Apparently he’s known for a long time,” she said. Signless kept his eyes closed and his breathing even. Disciple continued. “He says you’re not yourself. That you’re angry.”

“Oh yeah? And what else did he say?” Signless said with more bitterness than intended. He opened his eyes to see Disciple’s face worried and frustrated.

“He said he didn’t want you go get hurt,” she said defensively. “Please,” she took his hand, “tell me what’s wrong. Let me help you. Stop shutting me out.”

Her eyes were so wide. They always were when she meant what she was saying. So many different words and phrases were bubbling on the surface of Signless’s mind. What the hell was all this business with her and Psiioniic? What did that have to do with Psiioniic’s judgment? Why didn’t Psiioniic tell him about this before he left? None of that mattered, though, because when he looked into Disciple’s eyes all he could see was the green on the leaves of those little flowers on Tatooine. All he wanted was to go home. He wanted to hold Karkat and Kanaya. Now that they’d cocooned he’d never be able to hold them as grubs again. What else was he going to miss if this war didn’t end?

Signless gently pushed a strand of thick black hair out of Disciple’s face and kept tracing the line of her jaw to the back of her neck. He stopped his hand at the top of her back and slowly pulled her close to him. She turned her head and rested it in the crook of his neck.

“I’m afraid of losing you, Disciple. I’m afraid of Karkat and Kanaya getting hurt,” he whispered into her hair. “Everything I’m doing right now is for you.”

“What  _ are _ you doing?” she asked quietly.

He breathed in the piney scent of her hair. “I’m learning,” he told her. “I’m learning things about the Force that I never dreamed of, things that will keep you safe.”

She shook her head into him. “You don’t need to change for me.”

He disagreed but didn’t tell her that. If she saw the things he did when she was dreaming she’d fear for her life too.


	9. Pistols and Lightsabers

Commander Saraah, otherwise known as SS-967, was a reliable clone. She’d accompanied Psiioniic on more than enough missions before. He’d been through hell and back with that woman and trusted her with his life. Today he was glad it was her leading the Stormtroopers next to him.

“General,” she greeted him with a fanged smile at the large windows at the front of the assault ship. Utapau loomed big and green but still far away behind the glass.

“Commander,” replied Psiioniic with a nod.

She pulled a mini hologram projector from her belt and pulled up a small version of the planet they were looking at. “Utapau is an interesting little planet. There’s not much on it besides sinkholes. And moss. Most cites are concentrated in one area.” She rotated the hologram with a swipe of her hand and magnified a small continent covered in little names and territory lines.

Psiioniic nodded. “I’ll go ahead in my Starfighter to do a little recon and distract the forces if necessary until you arrive with the rest of the troops.”

Saraah nodded and cracked a wicked smile. “Leave some droids for my girls will ya? You know how they get restless.”

Psiioniic laughed and shook her hand. “You don’t have to tell me twice. See you on the other side,  Commander.”

She saluted him and he walked off to the hanger. He made a little mental note to thank Summoner for getting Saraah for this mission. By the time he’d strapped himself into the sleek yellow Republic Starfighter he had already forgotten he made it. He got the all clear from the control deck and eased out of the hanger doors into the cold and quiet of space.

It took half an hour to cover that much space, even at full throttle. The pains of being too close for hyperdrive but too far for a short ride. Finally Psiioniic broke into the wispy clouds that made up the atmosphere of Utapau. It really was a fascinating planet, all thousands of miles of windswept rock, arid and dry. He skimmed his fighter over small, stubborn shrubbery and lichen. Huge black circles pockmarked the surface like ancient planetary bullet wounds. He maneuvered the ship to the far continent where the sinkholes got bigger and he began to see little sparks of civilization poking out of the ground.

He hovered over the capital city, according to his maps, and requested to land. When he got permission he descended into the gigantic pit and landed on an outcropping platform. A crew of Utapauns in ground gear ran out to secure his ship and check the landing pad. Psiioniic popped the canopy and greeted them in their language. They nodded quietly in response. Psiioniic felt the heavy air of fear emanating from the crew.

“Greetings!” called a tall figure walking towards him calmly. The alien was looming and his skin was of the bluish hue. His face, like all the others, grew into a natural pattern of rivets and the spaces around his eyes were tinted red almost to the point where it looked like the coloration was dripping down his elongated face.

“To what do we owe the pleasure of a visit from a Jedi to our remote little planet?” asked the alien, stepping close to Psiioniic. Judging by his stiff, high collar and thick robes he must have been high ranking.

“I apologize for the unhappy circumstances, but the war, unfortunately,” Psiioniic replied in the best Utapaun accent he could muster but it was horribly tainted by his life on Coruscant.

The lean alien chuckled in the hissing way of his people. Psiioniic could see the two shiny rows of pointed teeth hiding behind blue lips. “No war has reached this far into the Outer Rim thus far,” he switched to the common language, Galactic Basic. “I’m afraid you’ve wasted your time.”

Psiioniic was grateful to be able to speak a language he actually could sound intelligible in. “Well,” he shrugged, “either way I’d very much appreciate your permission to search your planet and the surrounding systems for General Noir, or at the very least refuel.”

The alien nodded politely and bowed. Psiioniic bowed as well as the ground crew walked around them.

“Noir is here!” The Utapaun whispered. A crew member dropped a helmet noisily, giving their leader more time to talk. “We’re being held hostage and watched. Thousands of battle droids on three different levels: six, seven, and eight.”

Psiioniic nodded as the crew began to move away. “Tell you people to find shelter and if you have fighters to have them prepare.”

They straightened up and nodded diplomatically. “Thank you, sir,” Psiioniic said, heading for his ship. The Utapaun nodded evenly. Psiioniic hopped into his ship and set autopilot to return to the assault ship. He couldn’t risk sending a traceable signal so he massaged Saraah on his comlink personally, telling her he made contact and to retrieve his ship from orbit. As the ship hovered just over the platform he slipped out in the droid chute connected to the bottom, freefalling onto a little ledge and pulling himself into an alcove of rock. His ship rose until it was out of the hole and flew away. Psiioniic snuck a glance at his pinkies. They lit like a traffic light downtown Coruscant in rush-hour. Great.

He swung himself out of the alcove and into a carved window that lead to a hallway. Psiioniic expertly ducked into the shadows as a crew of specialized droid bodyguards walked by. He’d seen them before. Awful little bastards. They always got too cocky with their electric staffs. He cursed and slipped past them down the hall.

Old parts of the city had been carved directly from the rock. Newer parts hung out into the open air by metal suspension or other feats of modern engineering. Psiioniic stole up a flight of crumbling stairs that hung directly to the wall of the sinkhole. The city led down deep into the planet.

He didn’t quite know exactly where he was going but he trusted the sure feeling in his gut to guide him along. Soon enough he ended up in the interior of the city facing a corral of huge lizard like creatures with saddles strapped to their scaly backs. They hissed and bit at the air. A Utapaun man saw Signless and walked up hesitantly.

“Hello, I need to get to the sixth level. Any recommendations on how I should go about doing this?” he waved his hand and poured the Force into his words to put the man at ease.

“The fastest way is to ride one of these up the service roads,” the man said.

“Give me one.”

“I’ll give you one. Which one?”

Psiioniic hopped up onto the metal fence of the corral and waved a hand into the pit of reptiles, feeling his way about their minds and attitudes. Finally he stopped on one he liked. The nice, Force induced man brought her out and told him the creature's name was Boga. Psiioniic mounted her. He’d never really ridden a lizard before. The sides of the beast heaved out under his legs with every breath. Colorful, aqua feathers puffed out from the beaked head and ruffled with excitement. The giant clawed toes scraped the ground impatiently.

Psiioniic patted Boga’s neck. “Good girl,” he whispered. “Take me up the service roads.” He infused his words with his intentions carefully. Boga reared back, almost throwing Psiioniic from the saddle, and let out a curious, almost avian cry. Then she took off. Psiioniic wrangled up the reins and fell into the rhythm of her gait.

Boga galloped out onto the service roads, tight little excuses for trails that spiraled up and down the inside of the sinkhole. Psiioniic gazed out into the city on his way up. It was deserted. The lack of noise disturbed him more than the lack of movement. No ground crews or citizens could be seen but he felt their collective, fearful presence hiding in the shadows. He spurred Boga on.

The two of them reached the service lot for the sixth level. Psiioniic lead Boga into a shadow and hopped off. “Wait for me. Stay safe,” he told her, gently petting her snout. The creature cocked its head and let out a little burst of air from its beak. Psiioniic gave her another pat before heading off.

After a considerably amount of sneaking around and ducking away from droids, Psiioniic finally found a little meeting room ducked away on the eighth level. He Force kicked himself up to the rafters of the room next to it and crawled his way to the grating above where the most guards were stationed. Below him stood General Noir, Viceroy Dualscar, that ugly Geonosian that had tried to execute him along with Signless and Disciple, and half a dozen other separatists leaders all huddled around a metal table facing Noir.

“Alright, alright!” Noir was saying, exasperated. “We all know the Republic will track us here soon if they haven’t already.” The assembly fell into uproar again. Psiioniic was almost spotted as Noir rolled his eye to the ceiling in frustration. He rolled into a shadow at the last second, risking a creak but the noise was muffled by the ruckus below.

“Just stating the facts!” Jack roared over everyone, shutting them up. “I’m sending all of you to Mustafar, a lovely hunk of rock boiling to its britches in volcanic activity that will disturb any scanning with interference. Y’all will be fine.”

The crowd started shouting again. Dualscar slammed a fist on the table. “Hey buddy I don’t like your definition of ‘safe’! The Chancellor got away, _General,_ and Highblood got decapitated right under your robotic nose!” Dualscar’s fins were waggling. He scoffed. “Safe.”

Noir slammed his palm on the table so hard his metal palm broke the metal table top. That shut Dualscar up. “Your ship’s outside, fish-for-brains. Take it or leave it.”

Psiioniic gave a little nod to Noir for that one. He hopped to use it in the Chancellor one day. The meeting was dismissed and the Separatist leaders all made their way out of the room. Psiioniic waited until they left to follow Noir out into the wide area of the main hanger bay. He steeled himself in the rafters. Just like all great, evil people, Noir would be too arrogant to miss out on a fight. The droids below him were just for show. He gulped. At least, he hoped they were.

“Fuck it,” he breathed and swung himself down from the ceiling. Noir swung around. The sound of hundreds of droid guns slipping to firing stance filled his ears. Noir eyed him coldly with his solid red eye.

“Honey, I’m home,” Psiioniic said with a cocky smile as he unsheathed his lightsabers. He wasn’t really sure why he said it but it just sounded cool so he left it hanging in the air between them like bad cologne.

Noir grunted, unamused. “Shoot him,” he growled.

Psiioniic’s eye’s popped. He dived and rolled up a foot from Noir. The firing stopped. Noir groaned. “Kid, I don’t got time for this. Just get shot in the head like a good little Jedi and bug off.”

Psiioniic shook his head. “No go, General. I came here for a rematch.” He even added a little eyebrow waggle for good measure. This was not the plan. This was not the plan. The plan did not involve a hundred droids aimed guns at his head. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Where the hell was Saraah?

Noir grumbled something under his breath and pulled out his pistol. It was ancient. The thing shot actual bullets. Noir put the gun to Psiioniic’s head just as Psiioniic brought his lightsabers to an x at Noir’s throat. Noir laughed painfully. “Are you really gonna make me fight you?”

Psiioniic winked. “You really want to leave this to your droids? Fine, see if I care. But when I escape miraculously- I have a habit of doing that, by the way- and I find you and I kill you in your sleep… don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

Noir waved his free to call off the droids just as his other metal hand tensed up to pull the trigger. Psiioniic swung one of his lightsabers up to sever his arm but Noir already fell back, shooting a wall behind Psiioniic. Psiioniic swung again, pushing Noir back but Noir whistled to his specialized body guards with their specialized staffs. The robust droids moved in around Psiioniic and Noir. Psiioniic had to dance between the droids to avoid getting a bullet stuck in him. The metal bullets clinked off the metal of the droids. Psiioniic used the Force to thrust himself up. Noir took a shot while he was in the air. Psiioniic deflected it with his lightsaber, melting the bullet instantly. He stabbed both of the droids all the way down their spines and right into their controls at the back. They shuddered and fell. Noir took another shot as he ran away. Psiioniic deflected it. That made six shots so far. How many bullets did that guy have?

Noir dropped to one knee and fired at Psiioniic’s feet. Psiioniic jumped and sheathed one of his sabers midair to free a hand. With his hand he pulled on the grating above Noir with the Force. The grating fell in a screech of garbled metal. Psiioniic lit his saber again and charged with both weapons blazing. Noir pushed the heavy grate off him with incredible strength and hurled it at Psiioniic. Psiioniic dodged out of the way. He ducked behind a parked fighter just as all the other droids open fired.

“What is it with you- what’s your name, kid?” Noir called.

Psiioniic ground his teeth. Really? It’s not like they hadn’t been fighting for three years or anything. Psiioniic thrust up his blue lightsaber sporting a fabulous middle finger along with it. Fire instantly rained down. He ducked the hand back into cover.

“I’m just playing with you, Psiioniic,” Noir called. “You’ve been a pain in my ass far to long for me to at least know your name. I thought you’d know better by now. You really think you’re gonna walk out of this one alive?”

No sooner than the words left his mouth an explosion sounded outside. Psiioniic popped his head up just in time to see clone troops repelling into the sinkhole and firing at will. Droids fell off the side of the walls like bugs. It was a glorious sight. Good old Saraah, always in the nick of time.

Noir’s firing upset Psiioniic’s good mood. Now the firing was coming from everywhere. Droid laser and clone laser crissed and crossed around everything. Psiioniic took his opportunity to jump out at Noir, deflecting lasers left and right and quickly covering ground up to the Dersite cyborg.

Psiioniic lapsed for a second and Noir had enough room to take a shot. Psiioniic dropped both his sabers to use both hands to fling Noir off and out of the hanger all together. He scooped up his sabers and ran to where Noir had slipped off the edge of the metal flooring.

There, one level below, Noir was hopping into some kind of one wheel gyro-spherical machine. It kicked up dirt as it sped to the service roads.

“Damn!” Psiioniic yelled. He let out a piercing whistle. Boga appeared scaling the wall from two levels down to reach him. Psiioniic jumped and Bogo yelped, quickly turning to catch him while jumping onto the landing platform Noir had fallen on. Psiioniic used the Force to slow his descent just the tiniest bit and spurred Boga on as soon as he fell into the saddle. Noir sped out in front of them through the laser fire. He wasn’t shooting anymore.

Psiioniic kicked Boga and she complied with an incredible burst of speed. It was like riding a scaly hurricane. He held on tighter and yanked on the reins at every swift turn Noir made. The vehicle he was in allowed him purchase on every surface. Noir would zip right into a wall and keep going vertical until he reached the next level. Psiioniic and Boga jumped perilously from rock outcrop to landing platforms up and up the side of the sinkhole in hot pursuit. Noir turned sharply into a tunnel. Psiioniic yanked Boga around, knocking over droids that had run up to them, and followed Noir into it.

It opened up into more of the interior of the rock city. Droids and clone had turned the once busy road into a warzone. Noir didn’t care as he knocked clones and droids alike over in his escape. He took turns so sharp the vehicle seemed to lay horizontal to the ground. Psiioniic charged with the same attitude. Clones hopped out of his way and droids got swept off their mechanical feet with flicks of Boga’s long, sweeping tail. Explosions and laser fire vibrated through the air all around them as they ran and weaved over obstacles. Dust was filling Psiioniic’s nose and eyes.

Boga let out a cry as she spotted a group of Utapaun warriors battling in a tunnel coming up. Psiioniic pushed her past the heroic scene and kept after Noir. The slippery general was getting away. He kicked harder. Boga’s ribs dug into his legs every time she heaved another breath but she wasn’t about to give up. Noir took a sharp turn. Psiioniic and Boga were far enough behind to see it ahead of time. They barreled after him. The end of the tunnel opened up into… nothing. Noir’s vehicle spun freely in the air and landed hard on the other side of the sinkhole, attaching itself to the wall and climbing.

Boga screeched as suddenly there was nothing before her. Psiioniic put and hand to her neck and thought   _Jump!_ Her fear radiated through her but she complied with her new Master and threw herself out into the chasm. She clawed at the air and for a half second moment of inertia both Psiioniic and the lizard were suspended in midair, hundreds of feet from the bottom of the pit. Then gravity took hold of them once again and dragged the pair back down. Boga’s legs flailed. She landed hard on a narrow rock outcropping far below Noir. She moaned.

“I know,” Psiioniic told her. “I’m so sorry but we _have_ to catch him.” He felt guilty as the intention in his voice revived the poor animal. It scratched at the ground and let out its strange cry as it thrust itself off its back legs and onto the vertical wall. Psiioniic held on for dear life as the reptile climbed. Boga made faster work of the rock face then Noir but as she neared, Noir pulled another nasty little trick out of his sleeve.

There was the unmistakable sound of blades cutting through air as a ring of rotating razors surrounded the vehicle. Psiioniic cursed and pulled Boga back so she wouldn’t get hurt. They followed close behind but Noir had made it impossible to reach him.

Noir suddenly slipped into a tunnel Psiioniic hadn’t been expecting. Boga’s reactions proved quicker than his because she dove in after him without needing to be told. The tunnels lead into a large chute. Psiioniic kicked Boga until he was riding side by side with Noir. He shifted the reins to one hand and pulled out of his lightsabers.

The light from the red saber lit up the dark tunnel. It reflected off the metallic parts of Noir. Psiioniic jabbed the lightsaber into the rotating blades, slicing through all of them and even nicking the motor that was spinning the sharp pieces, stopping the deadly carousel all together. He heaved himself off Boga and crashed directly into Noir. Boga fell back instantly.

There were swearing from both sides. Psiioniic slammed Noir’s face into the controls and the vehicle went crashing into the wall, climbing it and continuing onto the ceiling. It went up and down and back up again. Noir and Psiioniic spiraled up and down the rock corridor until it opened up to yet another landing platform at the opening of a smaller sinkhole. Noir and Psiioniic both flung themselves out of the spinning death trap just as it shot off into the abyss.

No time was wasted. Noir whipped out his gun and fired mercilessly at Psiioniic. Psiioniic deflected the bullets and charged at Noir not even giving him a chance to prepare. Noir ducked but Psiioniic fell into a kick as soon as he did. His kick to Noir’s face alone almost took his head off. The gun went flying. Psiioniic reached into his belt to grab his other lightsaber just as Noir reached into his to grab another gun. Noir got his first. Psiioniic cursed and fell back catching bullets in his sabers. Noir almost reached the door to the access tunnel at the other side of the platform. Psiioniic wasn’t about to let that happen. He threw a saber away, heaved the door off its hinges with the Force, and yanked it towards him. The door popped forward and caught Noir full force in the face. Psiioniic still yanked it back, readied his lightsaber, and ran the burning blade through Noir’s head and through the thick metal of the door.

There was no time to revel as Psiioniic didn’t entirely think this through. Both Noir’s dead body and the door crashed into Psiioniic, taking him off his feet and sending a starburst of light behind his eyes. Psiioniic used his last bit of strength to Force push the weight off of him before he hit the floor and broke his ribs again. The heap of metal went flying as Psiioniic fell hard on his back. It crashed into the wall behind him. Psiioniic’s head whacked into the floor and the world went black. He snapped his eyes open but was unsure if he’d passed out or not. Either way his head was killing him.

Psiioniic let groaned a long drawn out, “Fuck,” as he pushed himself up. The world tilted for a moment but thankfully straightened itself out before Psiioniic could get mad at it. He hobbled over to the sheet of metal and used the Force to lift it off of Noir’s body. He was dead alright. Psiioniic had rammed him right through the robotic eye. Psiioniic flipped the corpse off and whistled. It took a minute, but Boga came bounding happily into the tunnel.

“That’s right,” Psiioniic breathed as he stroked her head, “Old Psiioniic made it out alive again.” Boga chirped happily as Psiioniic dragged himself painfully into her saddle. He groaned. The fighting was still going on outside. He messaged Saraah two words: I won.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guys... I saw Rogue One. I'm...... a) I'm shook I was crying. b) Yes, hell yes, hell fucking yes am I going to work it into the series (and my computer should be fixed next week so no more shitty phone editing!)


	10. Nice to Meet You

Despite everything Signless still worried about Psiioniic and that made him angry. He shouldn’t be worried about someone who kept secrets from him. The more the thoughts of the day churned in his head the more toxic they became. The one train of thought concerning Psiioniic was radioactive. It poisoned everything else he thought about but he didn’t know how to stop thinking about it. He thought Chancellor Peixes picked up on his moodiness; she usually did, especially after today. They’d spent most of it together going over the remaining Separatists planets in the Outer Rim and where they stood.

After the long day going over charts and planning Signless’s eyes were killing him and he just wanted to sleep, even if it meant nightmares he was just too tired to care. The final thing they had docked on their schedule was a meeting with a few Senators representing a concerned committee. Signless rinsed his face in the bathroom adjacent to Peixes’s office and fixed his hair in the mirror. When he walked out the six Senators were walking in. Signless hid his surprise that Disciple was among them. Her eyes widened a fraction when she saw him, though.

“Senators,” Chancellor Peixes greeted them. They bowed. She swept her arm out to the various chairs and couches spread out in her grand office. When the committee started to take their seats she stood up from behind her desk and joined them. Signless stood by her side and looked over the Senators. He recognized all of them. He was surprised Senator Maryam wasn’t involved.

“So,” she said with a clap of her hands. “What brings you all here?”

A dark human Senator spoke up. “We represent the Delegation of 2,000. 2,000 Senators who have signed a petition requesting you give the Senate back the powers you were allowed during this war. We request that the power given to acting governors be removed as well.”

Chancellor Peixes nodded to the woman slowly and with pursed lips. “I understand your concern but I assure you the appointed governors’ emergency powers do not interfere with the Senate’s responsibilities.”

Disciple sat up straighter. “And then what about your emergency powers? What about all the amendments made to the Constitution during your extended term?”

Peixes folded her hands in her lap. They attacked her quickly and with a political grace that no one had mastered better than her. “I assure that anything I have done to the Constitution has been in the sincerest effort to end this war. Any excessive power I currently hold will be relinquished without a fight after this war is over. I may not look it, but I’ve been in government for a very long time. I only wish what is best for this Republic.”

“So do we,” she said, raising the tension in the room the tiniest degree higher. “Our official requests are as follows: amendments to the Constitution removed, emergency power given to governors removed, and your emergency powers removed as well. We understand that this will not happen overnight and nor do we want that. We want these requested actions to be followed through correctly and respectfully.” Disciple took a deep breath as the implications of what she had just said permeated the room. They wanted Peixes to step down. Apparently 2,000 of them did.

To her credit, the Chancellor was taking the blatant request quite smoothly. “Senators,” she addressed the room, “This war has torn the galaxy apart. I understand that. I assure you all I want is for it to end and as soon as it does I will return the normal diplomatic procedures into the Senate once again.”

“So you have a way to end this conflict diplomatically?” asked another member.

Chancellor Peixes’s shoulders heaved the tiniest sigh. “Please trust me to do what is right, Senator. That’s what I’m here for. To end this.” She kept speaking before the man could object. “I think my word is promise enough for this committee of yours. Yes?”

Disciple nodded to the Chancellor. “I speak for everyone here and everyone in the Delegation of 2,000 when I say thank you, Chancellor.” She stood up and the other Senators did along with her.

Peixes stood up and bowed to them all. “Thank you, Senator Leijon, for bringing this matter to my attention. I will look into solutions and present them to you when they are complete.”

Disciple nodded politely and smiled tightly at Signless. Signless nodded back. As soon as it started the meeting was over and the committee was gone.

Chancellor Peixes sighed heavily and returned to her desk once they were all out the door. “They’re a goodhearted bunch. I know that much. But I fear there are more implications to their request than meets the eye.”

Signless took a moment to register her words. He wasn’t thinking about her. He was wondering why Disciple hadn’t told him about this, if this is why she’d been staying at the Senate so late. Maybe it was Psiioniic. Maybe he convinced her not to tell him. “What do you mean, Chancellor?” he asked.

Chancellor Peixes looked at him sincerely. “After all my years as a politician I’ve learned when to trust people and when to know not to.”

“You think all of them untrustworthy?” he asked defensively. “What about Senator Leijon? You’ve know her since she was Queen of Naboo.”

Peixes shrugged and looked up at Signless from her desk. “Forgive me for my suspicions but at times like this people become very different than who you believe them to be. War and power plays often arrive hand in hand. I wouldn’t be surprised if Senator Leijon was hiding something. I can almost see it on her features.”

Signless boiled at the words but couldn’t bring himself to take out his anger on Chancellor Peixes. Like always, the words she said made sense. Why? Signless didn’t like this at all. He didn’t like what this felt like. “Senator Leijon isn’t that kind of person,” he said to Chancellor Peixes. She was good. She was the love of his life. She couldn’t…. She’d never….

“I’m sure she’s lovely,” Peixes noted, turning back to a paper on her desk. “The most deceitful people often are. Really, I’d think your Jedi insight would have caught onto her ways by now.”

“That’s because there’s nothing to catch on to,” Signless said just the smallest amount quieter than he normally spoke.

Chancellor Peixes let a little huff of air out of her gills. It was almost her way of tutting. “Now, Signless, do you really believe that?” And he didn’t answer because in under a day Psiioniic and Disciple, the two people he loved most in the world, were beginning to look like strangers. He rubbed his eyes. What the hell was happening to his life?

Peixes interrupted his internal crisis by informing him that the Jedi at the Temple requested to see him. Signless groaned internally and obliged. What did they want? Probably something traitorous like always. Ever since Signless had been appointed Chancellor Peixes’s representative he was growing angrier at all the suspicion constantly surrounding her. Hell, even his own doubts had been absolved. She had nothing to hide. The Jedi couldn’t say that.

He sulked up the transport taxi and all the way into the Temple just to be charged with a mission he didn’t want by people he was beginning to loathe.

Signless met Summoner in the same room he had yesterday and watched Redglare and a few other Jedi on a holotable. All of them watched an incoming message from Commander Saraah. She was reporting on their way to Utapau.

“We should arrive in about-“she stopped and looked at something off-screen. “Sir, General Psiioniic has just made contact. The locals confirmed that Noir is in fact hiding there. I must go and ready the troops.” She signaled a salute and Summoner saluted back. Saraah disappeared off the holotable. Signless hoped she made it out okay. She always had before, that good old Saraah.

Summoner turned to Signless as soon as the message cut out. “Relay this message to the Chancellor,” he said, “and tell us how she reacts. We’ll gauge her reaction from there and see what we can guess of her intentions.”

Signless didn’t trust himself to reply so just nodded and bowed. When he was safely out of the room he allowed himself to clench his fists in anger. He thought about waiting outside the door and listening but he knew they’d sense his presence. It was safer to leave them to plot against their own state by themselves.

 

Even with everything he was feeling Signless didn’t automatically go crying to Peixes. If there was something wrong in the Order it was for the Jedi to resolve and the Jedi alone. He walked into her office and reported what the message said. He watched her reactions carefully, almost hoping she’d show some sign of hidden evilness that would turn everything right-side-up again and make his life normal.

She didn’t. She sighed in her concerned way. Signless plopped down childishly in the chair across from her desk and snagged a piece of red candy from the bowl.

“I really hope Psiioniic makes it out of that battle okay. I know how much he means to you,” she said softly.

Signless nodded and sighed. He was so tired. “I wish I was there with him.” He meant it. At least if Psiioniic really was hiding things from him then he’d be alive so Signless could kick his ass. He smiled something small. Psiioniic would have gotten a kick out of that reasoning.

Peixes nodded and massaged her temples. “It’s getting tiresome how predictively the Council underestimates your gifts. I can’t quite wrap my head around why they still refuse to make you a Master. It’d save so much time, don’t you think?”

Signless shrugged. “I don’t know. I wish I knew. Honestly, I think they fear me a bit.”

Peixes nodded again. “They’re hiding things of the Force from you. They don’t believe you’d be able to handle the unfiltered nature of the universe.” Signless looked up at her and frowned. She chucked. “I know a thing or two about the Force. I know enough to realize that they fear your power. They fear you’ll be too strong to control without that ocean of lies they’ve been drowning you in for so many years. They are so, so small next to you.”

Signless began to rise from his chair. This was not the Chancellor he knew. That sickening feeling rose up in his gut the way it used to when Pinch was about to hit him or when the air hung still before the first shot of a battle. It was a fear for his life. “How do you know about the Force?”

Peixes shrugged and leaned back in her chair. “I hada teacher once. Long time ago.” Her voice slipped into an accent he’d only heard snitches of before. “They taught me everyfin there is to know about the Force, even the Dark side, guppy.”

Signless was now on his feet, mouth open and fists clenched. “Why the hell would you even _want_ to know the Dark side?” he demanded.

She scoffed and faced the ceiling. “Signless, buoy, listen to me. Hear me out. Tell me I don make sense to you. When studyfin’ somefin you wanna learn all aspects of it, right? ‘Cause that’s the only reel way to learn all ‘bout it. Once you know the Dark side everyfin becomes crystal clear. The Jedi would never allow it ‘cause they scared shelless of perceiving a world that big.” She rose and leaned over the desk. “Let me show ya, kid. Those crusty old Jedi ain’t gon do nofin but hold you back.”

Signless reeled away from her. “No! There’s no need to know the Dark side! A true Jedi can see the universe clearly without it! Only a Sith talks like that!”

She actually cackled. “An’ how wouldya know? ‘Cause your precious lil Masters told you? How would they know? It’s all just one big boat o lies that you’ve been sailing on for years, that they been sailing on for eons.” Signless was reaching for his lightsaber. Peixes heaved her shoulders in a way that screamed ‘I didn’t wanna do this but…’ “Aight, Signless, I can show you how ta save your family.”

His heart stopped in his chest. For a moment he couldn’t move. The next he had his lightsaber sparking next to Peixes’s throat. She didn’t flinch. “What do you know about them?” he growled.

She shrugged, undisturbed by the red line of instadeath an inch from her gills. “Signless I know you. I can feel that concern bleeding through you like a shark smells blood. You gotta family somewhere. I dunno where and I dunno how but you care about them an’ Disciple. It’s obvious with perception like I got. Please, kid,” she stepped away from the saber. “Let me kelp you. I’m your frond.”

Maybe it was the fatigue. “Are Sith required to be insane or does that just come with the job? Stop making puns!” he yelled shoving the lightsaber at her throat again. She didn’t laugh this time but her smile said it all.

She looked him dead in the eye. “Hey don’t krill a sea dweller’s vibe.” She yelped as the blade nicked her skin. For a moment cold hard fury blazed in her eyes. She quickly regained her composure. She spoke softly. “I know why ya so scared. I know why you’re so confused. Trust me. I can share all my knowledge with you an’ get you away from the trickery and deceit of the Jedi.”

The lightsaber was shaking in Signless’s hands. His head spun and he wanted to kill her so bad. He wanted to splatter her fuchsia blood all over the walls and rid the world of her filth. His head reeled and his mouth and gone very, very dry.

“You gonna krill me?” Peixes whispered. “You gonna actually make somefin of that anger up inside you or are you gonna let it sit and fester like you always do?”

Signless focused on nothing but his breathing.

“Do you feel it coursing through your veins?”

His knuckles were turning white on the hilt.

“Feel how it makes your focus sharp, your intents insatiable? Let your anger fuel you. Let it drive you to places you ain’t ever dreamed of.”

Signless wanted to slit her throat open so bad it hurt and that’s exactly why he didn’t. He wasn’t a Sith. The Jedi were right about her all along. He switched the lightsaber off and glared at the Chancellor. “I don’t kill when I don’t need to,” he said firmly. “I’m going to bring you into custody of the Jedi.”

Chancellor Peixes sat down into her chair comfortably. The hatred in her eyes had vanished and so did her strange accent. “Fine. I’m not going to stop you from doing what you think is right,” she said. Signless turned to walk out and get Summoner. “I mean,” she said, making him stop, “if you still believe going to the Jedi is the right thing to do. Despite the personal beliefs of you or I harbor the point still stands that they are plotting to take over the Republic.”

Signless didn’t dignify an answer. He’d already been through this with himself. If there was something wrong with the Jedi Order the Jedi would handle it, him specifically.

“Just remember what I have to teach you could save your family,” she reminded him. Signless turned to stare at her. They held each other’s gaze. “I won’t run,” she promised. “I really do hope you’ll reconsider my offer. Perhaps even you and I could change this galaxy together.”

Signless let the words go unanswered as he shoved himself out the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My keyboard is fixed! Time to get to work! Merry Christmas, fronds!


	11. )(IC

Signless caught up to Summoner just before he boarded the gunship. “Summoner!” he yelled over the drone of the ship’s engines. Summoner ruffled his wings and titled his head. “Master Summoner!” Signless yelled again, running up to the ramp. Summoner finally turned around.

“Signless,” he yelled over the noise, a little agitated, “What is it?”

“Chancellor Peixes is a Sith.” The words cut through Summoner’s indignation instantly. The Master snapped his head back at Signless and dragged him inside the ship where it was quieter.

“What? Are you sure? How do you know?” Summoner asked quietly. He placed a massive hand on Signless’s shoulder and bent his knees so that they were almost eye level. He stared into him like he was trying to find something.

Signless quickly told him everything he could without mentioning Disciple or his family. It didn’t take long. Summoner shook his head. “We were just going to make sure she gave up her powers. Psiioniic killed Noir.”

Signless didn’t even get a chance to feel relieved. “She won’t give it up,” he said. Then again maybe she would. Maybe she really was using the Dark side in moderation. He quickly shook those thoughts from his head.

“I’m coming with you,” Signless said. He had to see this happen. No more secrets.

“No,” Summoner said sternly. “If she really has that much knowledge of the Dark side then this mission too dangerous already. She’s most likely the Sith Lord we’ve been searching for all these years.” Signless opened his mouth to protest but the edge in Summoner’s voice shut him up. “We need to go now if the Order is to make it through tonight.”

“But you can’t arrest her alone! That’s suicide!” Signless shouted.

Summoner gazed at him evenly. Signless knew his outburst had just condemned him from the mission all together. Summoner looked at him and said, “You’re confused and angry and that is no combination I want to look after tonight. Please, stay safe.”

Signless nodded and Summoner directed him out of the ship with instructions to wait in the Council Chambers.

 

It was strangely quiet in the chambers considering all the revelations crashing around him. Signless paced slowly around the room. He glanced at Redglare’s chair. He imagined if Psiioniic were in his situation that he’d lounge in the chair and imitate her nasally voice. For all he knew his Master already had. Signless didn’t take the golden opportunity and instead gazed out of the windows in the direction of the Senate building.

Coruscant looked so peaceful from the upper levels. Taillights from ships flowed on airways like phosphorescent fish. Fish… who the hell was Peixes to know that much about the Dark side? It was evil and wrong and… and yet quite possibly the only thing to save Disciple, and he had decided a very long time ago that he’d do anything for her.

The shadow of the impossible flickered across his mind. His pacing grew more rapid. No. No. Going to Peixes was out of the question. An impossibility. That would mean death to his career as a Jedi and everything he ever stood for. Sith are bad. They killed people out of emotions, not reason. Hell that was what Peixes had tried to get him to do tonight. She was willing to sacrifice herself for him to reach his potential.

Or maybe not. If she really knew the secrets of the Dark side that well maybe his threats had meant nothing to her. Maybe all he was to her was a pawn like everyone else. But if she was that powerful then she could save Disciple and Karkat and Kanaya in a minute. His nightmares had never been wrong before. If all those horrible things came to light he’d… he’d never be able to live with himself.

Signless screamed and punched the wall next to him. Spider web cracks shattered the surface. His hand felt fine. He choked back a sob and tore at his hair. He couldn’t let them die. He couldn’t let them down. Disciple’s laugh played on loop in his head. Memories of Kan and Kar burbling in their sleep projected behind his eyelids when he blinked. He couldn’t let them die. He couldn’t see them suffer.

Something cracked in Signless at that moment. The something wasn’t fully realized yet but it had been weakening Signless’s will from the day Dolorosa died. The something was dark and heavy and made Signless feel like he was drowning but was also the only thing that allowed him to stay afloat. He clung onto the feeling and wiped the tears from his eyes. The feeling, the fear for his family’s life and the hatred towards anyone who put them in harm’s way, coiled about his morality and hardened into a resolute mentality that broke Signless’s heart. He choked on that feeling all the way into the hanger where he stole a speeder and all the way to the Senate building. It steered him to the Chancellor’s door.

Unconscious guards littered the hallways. Darkleer lay slumped over against a wall. Signless kept moving towards the sounds of lightsaber clashes. Finally he burst into Chancellor Peixes’s office. Three dead Jedi were strewn across the room. Summoner and Peixes were engaged in a brilliant show of saber on saber combat. Summoner tried a swing that almost took Peixes’s head. They were fighting to kill. Peixes ducked and the burnt orange saber shattered the window behind them. Cold air from the outside rushed into the office. Papers flew like ghosts and Peixes’s hair danced around her face. Her lip curled in fury.

Peixes turned and saw Signless. Summoner didn’t and took the opportunity to smack the pink lightsaber out of her hands. “You’re under arrest!” he yelled over the wind.

Peixes didn’t even hear him. She was facing Signless earnestly. “Look at this, Signless! Look what they’re doin’! Is this democracy?”

Summoner shoved his lightsaber in her face to make her look at him. “You’re a Sith!” he yelled. “You don’t get to speak about democracy!”

Signless stepped deeper into the room. He was close enough to hear Peixes spit, “Vote on this,” as she thrust her arms out. Blinding gold flashes of lighting coiled around her fingers into the sparking form of a trident that she rammed into Summoner, who just barely caught it with his lightsaber. Peixes was pushing Summoner towards the edge of the broken window. Summoner’s foot started to slip and his wings began to flutter for balance.

“He tried ta krill me, Signless!” she yelled as she pushed him further back. Signless watched in agony.

“She killed those Jedi at your feet!” Summoner shouted, now fully off the platform and struggling to stay still in the wind.

“I was actin’ outta my own defense! The Jedi have turned to murder!”

“Don’t listen to her!”

“This is what your lil Masters do when they don’t get their way! This is what they’ll do to the Republic if we don’t stop ‘em!”

Summoner’s wings pushed him forward into the room. The force knocked Peixes down to the ground where she still held the electric trident aloft in defense from him. Signless was close enough to touch her.

“He’ll krill me and then you too!” she said under the strain of Summoner.

Sweat poured off of Summoner’s forehead. “Don’t. Listen. To. Her,” he said between heavy breathes. “She’s. A. Sith!”

“Don’t let him end your family along with me!” Peixes begged her voice breaking.

“No!” Summoner yelled. “The Sith will not rise again!”

Peixes’s arms quivered under the weight of the muscular troll above her. Signless still didn’t move. He couldn’t.

The orange lightsaber turned and cut through the energy of the trident

“Please,” she squeaked, “Kelp me!” It was getting closer and closer to Peixes’s heart. “I can’t” she pleaded, “hold off anymore.” Watery pink tears were welling in her eyes as the orange inched closer and closer to ending her life. “Please.”

Signless felt himself shaking his head, to what he didn’t know. Summoner grunted as he pushed harder. “I won’t let the Sith come back.”

“This isn’t right,” Signless muttered. “She has to stand trial!” he yelled. “She can’t be convicted if she’s dead!”

Peixes was arching her head away from the saber. “She can’t do any harm either!” Summoner spat through clenched teeth. Peixes’s arms shook terribly. She wouldn’t break eye contact with Signless. “The courts are probably corrupted by her as well!” Summoner added.

_“Please,”_ she mouthed as her last bit of strength left her arms.

“It’s not right!” Signless yelled as he barreled into Summoner’s chest, spinning he bigger troll around. Before he had time to realize what was going on Peixes was on her feet again grinning like a shark-toothed maniac. She squealed in delight as the golden trident in her hands reformed and sliced Summoner’s big, beautiful wings off. They were picked up by the wind and seemed to fly themselves away from Summoner’s agonized screams. Peixes jabbed Summoner in the chest as soon as he turned. She jabbed him again and this time energy burst off the sharp tips in a dazzling display of lightning bolts that flung Summoner all the way out the window and into the unforgiving freefall awaiting him.

Peixes cackled over the wind. She stood tall and almost glowed with a goddess like radiance. Sher robes were torn and smoking to so she tore them off in a fluid motion to reveal a tight black and pink body suit beneath. Her hair flowed around her predatory face and framed the whole scene in an awesome glory. She twirled the trident once before it fizzled into nothing.

Signless fell to his knees. His eyes couldn’t leave the spot where Summoner had stood a mere ten seconds ago. Red tears welled in his eyes and tinted the bodies around him crimson. “You killed him,” he choked out.

Peixes knelt down next to him. She smelled like perfume, blood, and ozone. It reminded Signless of something. His stomach lurched as he realized she reminded him of Psiioniic. “Hey,” she said softly. “It hada be done. Those Jedi been plotting to take over this Republic for a long time. We can end all that. We can change all of this.” Signless was shaking his head. One of Summoner’s wings made a papery noise as it was sucked out the window by the wind. “In our galax-sea there’ll be no war,” Peixes said. “In our galax-sea no one will have ta hide.”

“Tell me you can save my family,” Signless breathed.

“If you let me teach ya,” Peixes told him, “I can show ya how to save everyone.”

The cracked thing in Signless shattered into a million pieces. “I’ll do everything you need.”

Peixes’s lip curled into a satisfied smile. She ran a hand through his hair. Shivers shot down his spine. “Thank you for coming to ya senses.”

“Don’t let her die,” he croaked out, leaning away from her touch.

“Only one person figured out how to end death. You and I will unravel that secret no problem.” She snapped her fingers and stood up. “Now, pledge yaself to me.”

“I pledge myself to you.”

“And the ways of the Sith?”

“And the ways of the Sith, Master Peixes.”

She giggled, delighted. “Buoy, there’s no need to call me that. For now on address me as the Condesce, short for Her Imperious Condescension, long for Condy. Whateva suits ya.” Signless nodded up at her. “And you will be Lord…?”

“Sufferer.”

Condesce held out a hand to help him up. Sufferer took it and Signless died.

 

The two of them fell into rhythm with each other flawlessly. Condesce sat behind her desk and knitted her fingers. “The Jedi don’t trust ya, never did. ‘Cause a that we in the dark. When they figure out what happened here they’ll krill us all, even the Senators.”

He nodded. “Take out you and then everyone else. It’s just tactics.”

Condense bit her lip. “They’re all corrupted, every single one of ‘em. Even that sparky pal of yours, Psiioniic.” He nodded. Condense stood up quickly and began pacing. “We gotta move now. I don’t wannanotha civil war. It’ll blow this galax-sea to smithereens. All the Jedi gotta be eliminated.” She stopped to squint at him. “ _All_ of them. You catchfin ma drift? Not even the little gups in the Temple. In fact, go to the Temple now.” She smiled the more she thought about it. “Don’t hold back ‘cause they’re wrigglers. One Jedi left standing with a vendetta is worth a hundred otherwise. Ya got it?”

He didn’t allow himself to process what she was asking of him. “I understand, Master. What about all the other Jedi, though? There are thousands across the galaxy right now.”

Condense waved a hand. “I’ll think a somefin. You just gotta worry about all the Jedi in the Temple then go to Mustafar. Krill that Viceroy Dualscar and any other Separatists with ‘em. End it.” Her pacing slowed and she took a moment to toss her hair back. “An’ when this is all ova, the Sith will rule the galax-sea once again and peace will return to this mess.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “I want it reported that I drowned in moonlight, strangled by my own bra.” -Carrie Fisher 1956-2016  
> RIP SpaceMom.


	12. Order 66

-                          

beneath her arms as she crawled through the underbrush. Sounds of the forest filtered down through the canopy as the Jedi made her way over the muddy ground. The Separatist base was too sheltered to be attacked head on. The only way to reach it was to stalk up to the back and catch them in a surprise attack. She looked around; suddenly realizing her clones weren’t shadowing her anymore. “Commander?” she whispered into her comlink. Dead air was the only reply. A sinking feeling started in the pit of her gut. She slowly reached her hand back to her belt to retrieve her lightsaber. The Stormtrooper Commander shot her in the back before she could

-

as their boots made clinking noises on the tiles. The Jedi scoffed at the paintings lining the walls of the palace. Rich warmongers always were safe from the destruction they caused. This one has been holed up in the wealthier parts of Anobis for months thinking he was safe. His arms dealing ended today. The Jedi signaled to his troops. There were only five Stormtroopers with him for this mission, as easy as it were. Commander 4116 stopped walking next to him. Her head was titled slightly, like she was listing to something in her helmet. “It will be done, my Lord,” she said to the voice. The Jedi stopped walking, sensing the tension in the air. He didn’t even get a chance to ask who she was talking to. The five troops were already cutting him down with enough laser fire to

-

next to them, barely giving them enough space to maneuver. The fleet of Republic Starfighters zipped through the battle with the coordination of a ravenous pack of animals looking for a kill. The three Jedi leading the assault spat orders and formations into the mics. The droid ship in front of them poured everything they had into the fleet. Clone pilots were being shot down left and right but they couldn’t give up now, not when the droid ship was already breached. “All units converge on the breach!” a Jedi yelled. She gripped the yoke and blasted the tail end of an a-wing shooting at her best friend. He yelled at her to watch where she was shooting and she ground her teeth, thinking, _how many times do I have to save you before you get it through your head that I’m not trying to kill you?_ They bickered for a moment over the open coms until the older Jedi barked at them to “Pay attention!” and they did just as she called out a formation that they fell easily into. They’d done this a thousand times. And just like a thousand times before, the entire fleet came together and blasted the droid ship right out of orbit. The generators ignited and blew the whole hunk of Separatist metal up in a dazzling, silent explosion. The two younger Jedi cheered as the older woman sighed and the clones hollered over the links. Victory. But then a strange, harsh voice sounded over the open links. “Commander,” the voice said, “It’s go time. Execute Order 66.” And the Commander’s voice sounded over all the coms as well. “It will be done, my Lord.” And the two younger Jedi both looked at each other through their glass canopies as all hell

-

green on his skin. He looked at the filtered light thoughtfully. Before he turned in for the night he’d gotten word that Master Psiioniic had found General Noir. The ancient Jedi sighed. He’d seen war in his time. Many, many battles had come to pass before his wise eyes. You didn’t get to live over half a millennium on luck alone. He knew the Force held the balance of the universe and that the Force would bring peace once again. He sighed contentedly and lay down in his cot. The plans for tomorrow’s assault on the droid factory would be rough, but his troops could do it. They always did. He chuckled at a past memory. To think he was wary of the clones when they’d first joined the war effort. What a savoir they had been. He knew that they would not be where they were today if the clones had not come to reassure them. What he did not know was that those wonderful clones had a bio-chip implanted at the base of their skulls that activated as soon as they were commanded by Condense to execute Order 66. He did not know that all those loyal allies were slaughtering his comrades across the galaxy because the chip told them that the Jedi were threats. He did not know that so many of them were dying. The Force has a way with these things. It reveals what It will. Perhaps it was kinder for him not to know his Padawan was being murdered in the tent next to him. Perhaps, as the clone stalked in while he was drifting off to sleep, the Force had chosen to be kind and keep him soundly dreaming when the clone drew her blaster and

-

out of their lungs. They struggled to kick to the surface on no air. After a fall like that, they were sure somethings were broken. They looked up just their ship sank below the purple ways. They swam harder to avoid being pulled under, spitting out algae heavy water as they did. They just barely managed to escape the pull of the rushing water as the ship finally was fully submerged. A huge burp of bubbles rushed up after it, almost pulling the newly recognized Jedi Master below the surface again. What a great first solo mission this was. The droids were destroying everything in the lake. The Jedi’s head rushed as the effects of so much blood loss started to show. The loud sounds of explosions and turrets started to grow quieter and the world grew dim even though the sun was high above the indigo sky. They swirled around looking for something, anything that would save them. There, speeding towards them, was a small motorized boat with a clone at the bow. The Jedi broke into a weary smile. They’d lost so much blood they didn’t even think to flinch as the clone on the bow raised her blaster and aimed it at

-

his Master. The woman looked so pail in the snow. The blue of their skin had almost faded completely. He tried to remember what to do but the sickness was something that they still hadn’t found a cure for. After all the time this damn war had gone on, a war that him and his Master hadn’t even fought in, she had to get sick. He dragged her out of the snow drift and across the icy wasteland for a mile before coming to an ice structure. The folks inside recognized them as the doctors that had saved their daughter and rushed them in out of the cold. He immediately placed his Master by the heating stove and yanked out his communicator. He did not fight in the Army of Light like the majority of the Jedi. He was teased mercilessly at the Temple for choosing the Medical Corps instead but his Master never laughed. She was a doctor. He just wanted to save people like she did. He put up an open channel and waited. As he did, he tried to warm his Master up but the sickness was tearing her immune system apart. She had begun to shake and sweat but her skin was still freezing. It felt like an eternity until finally a passing clone ship received their message. He called in her symptoms and requested immediate medical assistance. They’d lost all their gear in the snowstorm. All he had to give her out there was his hand warmers. Finally the clones trudged into the ice home. Not only did they kill the two Jedi, but the family as well. The daughter would find out later when she returned from

-

standing straight up on the back of his neck. He managed to take out one clone before a laser found its mark right

-

entire world came crashing down around them. They ran but there were too many to

-

years. We’re friends! Why are you doing this?” he cried. The clone, his best friend, did not reply. The Jedi walked up to her and removed her helmet. She was crying. He held her cheeks in his hands. “Please,” he said. 7704, the defect, the broken one, the clone who didn’t want to fight. He looked into her eyes and wiped the blue tears away. She nodded slowly and lowered her blaster. She opened her mouth to tell him that she loved him just as the laser ripped through both of their torsos. They fell to the ground still holding each other’s faces. No one would ever

-

stoically and tried to focus on the Force as the triggers were pulled and

-

mercy.  She cried and screamed and didn’t care how undignified she looked. She kicked and scratched and still the clones came. Her lightsaber was gone and now all she had was the knife. Blue blood from the clones soaked her hair and plastered it to her face as she slit the throat of another one, and another one, and another one. They tried to come at her but she just kept taking them out. It was barbaric. She pushed herself to survive whatever the hell was going on. She thought after she made it out of the caves that would be it alright again. She never expected

-

didn’t want it to be the last thing her lifelong friend saw before she died so she closed his eyes before

-

could think of was that this was his original lightsaber

-

rushed up to meet her. Better to jump to a death, he choose, then be killed by those filthy

-

gasped. She steadied herself on the railing. The Wookie beside her tilted his head and groaned.

“No,” Redglare said, “I’m not alright. Something… unspeakable is happening.” Her head whipped around to face the squad of Stormtroopers marching up the tower. The four clones already had their blasters aimed. They toppled to their knees as the Wookiees on both sides of her shot them in the necks with their crossbows.

Redglare took one more look over the battle raging below the tower. The clones were retreating. All across the waterways and in the bits of forest she could see clones were falling back, leaving countless Wookie troops undefended. The commanding Wookie next to her roared. She nodded. He was right. She needed to escape.

“Can you get me to a ship?” she asked. The Wookie nodded. “Good,” she said. “Let’s go.”

The two of them ran and flung themselves off the tower and onto the ropes trailing down from it. Clones shot at them from all sides. Redglare slid down the rope with one gloved hand and deflected the laser for the both of them with her dragon headed saber in the other. The air rushed past her ears. They barreled into the woods. Even there the fighting persisted. Trees the size of sky scrapers were full of Wookiees covering their retreat. Clones dropped dead behind and before them. Redglare followed the Wookie through the dense, dense forest. The further they ran the more the sounds of fighting fell behind.

Redglare tried to focus on the tall Wookie running before her. She felt thousands of lights dying all over the galaxy. Her heart lurched as a more and more Jedi fell. She kept running. The Dark side was consuming the Order in a matter of synchronized minutes. Who? She ran harder to keep up with the Wookie. Who would have the power to do this? The Chancellor. She had to have sway with the Dark side, otherwise

-

never felt better! Even with the pounding headache and awful stiffness in his neck, Psiioniic was on top of the world. He saluted to Commander Saraah as he rode past her on Boga. He yanked on the reigns and took out four droids with his lightsabers before doubling back.

“Congratulations!” Saraah called.

“Thank you!” Psiioniic yelled, deflecting a laser. “It’s almost over!”

Saraah fell to one knee and blasted some droids off the wall of the sinkhole. “Don’t celebrate yet!” she yelled. “We still gotta win this battle.”

Psiioniic surveyed the scene. It was looking good at the moment but he knew that battles could turn on a coin before you even had time to blink. Even though the clones had almost overrun the droids, and even though Noir was dead, now was no time to get cocky. He deflected lasers into oncoming droids that had slipped past Saraah’s troops. The unique shape of the sinkhole presented all new dimensions to the battle. Psiioniic would be fascinated if he was studying it but at the moment he just didn’t want to die.

“Cover me, Psiioniic, I got an urgent message!” Saraah yelled.

Psiioniic nodded and moved in close to her. Boga swept droids away with her tail as Psiioniic deflected lasers back at droids. They dropped easily. Droids were only bad when there were a lot of them and lucky for him the numbers were thinning out. He turned to check on Saraah. She’d gone ridged.

“What is…” before Psiioniic finished speaking he spurred Boga away. Saraah raised her blaster and began firing. So did all the other clones! Concentrated fire rained down around him. Psiioniic heard Boga yelp as a blast nipped her tail. He spurred her on to the edge of the sinkhole but this time there was no ledge to jump off of, nor did he want there to be. Psiioniic and Boga fell freely down the hole, bursts of red streaking past them the whole time. Psiioniic took a millisecond to feel grateful when he saw Bogo naturally fall into a dive as he did to. The deep well of water at the bottom of the pit was coming up fast. He held his breath as the blue engulfed him.

That was easy part. Psiioniic quickly found an emergency rebreather in his belt and shoved it in his mouth to suck in air. He swam to an underwater cave and felt around for any dangerous presences. There were none so he continued. He kept going until he finally hit breathable air. He lit a saber for light in the dark underground tunnels. It was going to be a long walk to the surface.


	13. And Then There Were Two

There were a lot of close calls during his journey in the tunnels. Probes had been trailing him relentlessly and there had been a lot of dead ends. He even ran into a giant bioluminescent nos monster and her young at one point. It was a terrific showdown ending in a touching display of courage when the juvenile nos jumped in front of Psiioniic’s lightsaber to save its mother. He was too compelled by the act to hurt the animal. That didn’t stop the smaller one from trying to eat him too, though. Psiioniic ended up doing the noble thing. He ran away.

Eventually, though, he did manage to get into the smaller sinkhole that he had chased Noir into. Psiioniic jimmied and shocked the controls in a private cruiser he found and made his way off Utapau and into deep space. The cruiser was nice. For its small size it had a hyperdrive and integrated long distance communication. The green planet faded quickly behind him but the shock of Saraah pulling her blaster on him stayed very close. Before he went into hyperspace he decided to try and find out what the hell was going on. A dull ache had situated itself in is chest and he didn’t know what it was but he knew he didn’t like it.

He set a course for Coruscant and opened up an emergency line. “Emergency Code Nine-Thirteen. No contact. Dead frequencies. Requesting any Jedi confirmation that…” he stopped. That what? “…that there are still any Jedi out there.” Dead air. No one. Psiioniic closed his eyes and begged the universe to let Signless be okay.

A fizzle of static later and a fuzzy hologram was being displayed on his dash. Psiioniic fiddled with the settings until he locked onto the frequency. It was Senator Maryam.

“…oniic? Can you hear me?”

“Yes!” Psiioniic cried. “Hello, Senator Maryam. My clones attacked me! I don’t know how it happened, but-“

“It’s happening all over the galaxy,” she interjected gravely. Psiioniic’s breath ran away from his lungs. The Senator shook her head sadly again. “We only just got a hold of Redglare. She just barely escaped from Kashyyyk, even with the Wookiees’ help. We’re receiving word from all over the galaxy that Jedi are being gunned down.”

Psiioniic shook his head. He tried to think of words but nothing coherent appeared in his mouth. Finally he muttered, “What happened?”

Senator Maryam told what happened from her perspective. Fire and smoke had been billowing out of the Jedi Temple. She didn’t understand so she went to go see. The clones guarding the entrance wouldn’t even let her inside. They didn’t care that she was Senator of Alderaan, she wasn’t allowed in. They said the Jedi were rebelling against the Republic but it was under control. Being the demanding Senator that she is she kept persisting she be granted entrance. They almost shot her. A Jedi youngling, not a day over ten ran out of the Temple leading three others behind him. Their lightsabers raked down clones before the guards in front of her turned and shot them mercilessly. The Senator took that moment to escape.

“They can’t just shoot children!” Psiioniic shouted.

The Senator’s image flickered as his sparks almost shorted out the hologram. She shook her head solemnly. “They did. I barely escaped with my life and gathered up my Royal Guard as quick as I could. You know me, always paranoid. We searched for surviving Jedi beacons in the chaos. The clones really didn’t bother us. No one really seems to be in command,” she explained. “I intercepted Redglare as she arrived and just received your signal as well.”

Psiioniic nodded. It was all he could do. The dull ache in his heart turned sharp and demanding as now it had a name. He was feeling the death of Jedi on planets all across the galaxy. He felt like throwing up. “Can you send me your location on Coruscant?” he managed. Senator Maryam did so and told him they weren’t _on_ Coruscant but in orbit with it. He groaned. Coruscant was halfway across the galaxy. It would take him six days of regular travel. Even with the hyperdrive on this ship it would take him a good ten hours. Small ship. Less built up momentum. He set his coordinates and settled back for a long ride.

 

After what seemed like an eternity Psiioniic finally arrived and docked on the Alderaan starship. Senator Maryam met him in the hanger and led him to a small metallic dining hall where Redglare sat still looking at a glass of water.

“We are entering a dark time in this galaxy,” she said ominously as they entered. Psiioniic wanted so badly to make some jibe, to chastise her for being so dramatic, or imitate the statement in a higher pitched version of her nasally voice. He did not because she wasn’t even being dramatic. If anything she was understating the situation.

“How many clones have gone astray?” he asked, sitting down next to her.

“All of them, as far as we can tell,” she answered slowly.

Damn. “Who else has managed to signal us?”

Redglare shook her head. “No one. In fact, there’s a message coming from the Temple saying the war has ended. It’s calling all remaining Jedi home.”

“Dammit!” Psiioniic hit the table and bounced his leg. Redglare gave him a glare for his outburst. Always the example Jedi. “What about the Corps?” he asked, snapping his fingers. “They can’t have gotten everyone in the agricultural corps for fuck’s sake.”

“You’re still a Jedi not a ruffian,” Redglare reminded him sternly. Psiioniic bowed his head slightly. He raised it when Redglare shook her head and said, “We haven’t gotten any signals from any of the Corps. Every Jedi of every kind had been targeted.”

Psiioniic ran a hand through his greasy hair. He needed a shower and a few days in a recuperacoon. He didn’t sleep at all during the flight over. “Then what about the Temple? We have to check and see if anyone survived. They might be hiding or holed up or…”

Senator Maryam was slowly shaking her head. “It’s still too dangerous. The clones have it surrounded.”

Psiioniic took a deep breath and allowed himself to sit down on the hard metal seats with the two women. “Can we at least dismantle the signal? Just in case someone survived?”

Maryam nodded. “That’s a good idea, but you’d have to be at the source of the signal.”

Redglare’s glassed reflected the florescent lighting illuminating the dining hall. “I believe the Order won’t recover from this for a very, very long time.”

“Don’t be such a downer,” Psiioniic mumbled. He may had been hallucinating due to the exertion of the past 35 hours or maybe it was a trick of the light, but Psiioniic swore he saw Redglare’s lips curl into the tiniest, saddest smile he’d ever seen in his life.

 

Psiioniic barely got an hour of sleep, albeit hunched over in the control room as not to miss anything, before Senator Maryam received a message from Coruscant. He took a brief moment to revel in the miraculous fact that he didn’t have a kink in his neck. Really, with how many times he’d almost died that day chiropractic problems were the last thing he needed.

Him and Redglare watched from a distance as Maryam took the call on a holotable. It was another Senator informing her that the Chancellor requested her presence at a Congress session. Maryam smoothly promised she’d be there and closed the link.

“A trap?” she asked immediately.

Psiioniic shrugged. “Why even bother with Congress? The Senate practically doesn’t even exist anymore.”

Redglare nodded next to him. “Not a trap but definitely something we can use to get into the Temple and investigate.”

 

Less than an hour later they were walking into the back entrance of the Senate building. It made things easier to be a little sneaky. Psiioniic tried not to feel the aura of death that was permeating the air. It was sickening. Redglare saw the shudder run down his spine and nodded. She felt it too. Psiioniic was itching to punch someone, to blame someone. He wanted this all to be over. A quick fix. Arrest someone and have it be done but he knew that something like this didn’t work that way. He knew this was going to take a long, long time to be repaired. Whatever it was.

They strode purposefully through the halls and avoided all the guards they could manage. Occasionally they came to a door that required access. The guards would politely inform the Senator that the Jedi needed to be detained and Redglare would politely wave her hand and tell the guard that no, they needed to stay with Senator Maryam and that was that.

Maryam stopped at the doors to the interior of the Senate. “Good luck,” she said to her friends before slipping into the room. Redglare and Psiioniic wished her the same and stole off into the darker hallways and into the underground service tunnels. It really wasn’t underground or tunnels but the system of pipes that connected to most buildings and served as a great illegal highway for smuggling. Psiioniic knew it well. It was the only was he traveled as a kid. Redglare didn’t question his lead as he felt his way through the twist and turns of the dark tunnels. It was easy to get lost down there but he managed it quickly and soon enough they were popping their heads out of a service hatch in the basement of the Temple. There was one guard watching a series of security monitors ten feet from them. How lucky. Well, lucky for them. The clone guard was dead before she hit the ground.

Psiioniic and Redglare hunched over the monitors. There were robed Jedi all throughout the Temple but they were all the same height and all the same build. Psiioniic shook his head. They were just walking past all the bodies, all the carnage. Jedi were strewn across the floor and they hadn’t even bothered to pick them up. And some of the Jedi were too small to be adults.

“That’s a lot of clones. This isn’t going to be easy,” he said.

Redglare shook her head. “It never is.” Psiioniic glanced at her and took a second to appreciate that he was actually working alongside her. It was always a pleasure. Even after being on the Council with her for so long he could never get over standing next to a legend.

He played with the monitors until he found the room where the signal was coming from. It was high in the Temple. “The Council Chambers,” he said, surprised. “We should get going.”

“Agreed,” said Redglare. “But before we do, is there any way to rewind these recordings?”

Psiioniic nodded and pressed some more buttons. Duh. Rewind the footage. Made sense. He rolled to a day before. It was calm. Thousands of Jedi filled up the many monitors above them. Psiioniic’s heart lurched to think that they were all dead now. We swore that he’d find whoever did this. Not for revenge. Revenge drove Jedi into Siths. He wanted to know why. Why would anyone do this? How could they?

He fast forwarded the records until there was movement on one of the higher screens. The entrance. A cloaked figure was leading a battalion of clones into the Temple. Any Jedi that saw them were shot on sight. The cloaked figure directed the clones into different sections as they entered. The screens began to fill with laser fire and death. Psiioniic turned down the volume slightly. The figure crossed into a new screen as they entered and drew a lightsaber from their belt. It was red. Psiioniic frowned. Very, very few Jedi had red lightsabers. He leaned closer to the screen as what must be a Sith started cutting down Jedi with a ferocity Psiioniic had seen many times on the battlefield. He felt his jaw slackening into a mortified O but he didn’t bother to stop it.

Psiioniic tried to believe it wasn’t him. He gripped the chair back so hard his fingers hurt. The figure with the red lightsaber kept moving, mowing down Jedi after Jedi with disturbing ease. Psiioniic’s throat felt like he hadn’t had water in years and his leg was bouncing hard enough to make his knee pop. The figure with the red lightsaber turned to order a clone and there it was. Signless’s face filled up a tiny portion of the monitor for a few seconds before the hood fell into it again. Psiioniic’s knees buckled but he stayed standing. Signless killed his friends and teachers. Signless was killing the people he detested and the people he loved.

When Signless walked into the hallway leading to the dormitories, Psiioniic’s knees actually did give out. He pulled himself into the chair and watched dumbly. Already the younglings had pulled themselves into a secure classroom and barricaded the door. A few of their small bodies lay limp in the hallways but many of them had put their training to use and worked together to defend themselves. Signless used the Force to easily remove the barricade. The children rushed up to him as he entered. The monitor’s speakers emitted a small chorus of their high voices asking what they were supposed to do. Signless didn’t answer. He cut them down just like he cut down everyone else. At this point Psiioniic had shut down. He watched the events playing out across the monitor emotionlessly. A dull part of him told him that he was going to blow up later but he was fine with that. He just didn’t want to blow up now.

The rest of the recordings were as expected. The clones did a routine military sweep and flushed out any Jedi that remained. They even caught a glimpse of Senator Maryam almost getting shot. And a quick fast forward later and they were here.

Redglare placed a hand on his shoulder. Psiioniic shrugged it off and stood up. “Shall we be going?” he asked.

Redglare shook her head. “There are many, many clones in the building. I’m going to investigate and see if I can find anything that could help us. You dismantle the signal and get out of here. We meet back with Senator Maryam or I find you, agreed?”

Psiioniic nodded. They two of them stealthily moved through their home. They killed the clones they needed to and avoided the bodies littering the floor the best they could. Redglare fell back and took an obscure hallway halfway up the Temple and Psiioniic kept moving towards the Council Chambers. None of it felt real. He felt like he was dreaming and he wished that he was so, so badly. Signless’s presence hung all over the place but it was tainted. It was dark and corrupted. Whatever had come through here had not been Signless.

 

Redglare showed up in the Chambers halfway through Psiioniic’s session with the sleek computer under the holotable in the center of the room. “You find anything?” he asked as he punched codes into the beacon.

“No,” she said. “How are you coming along?”

Psiioniic told her he’d dismantled the beacon and was now building a new one to warn the Jedi to stay away. She remained quiet as he worked. After a while he finished and closed the computer. “It’ll take them a long time to change that,” he announced.

Redglare nodded. She was sitting in her Council seat. He realized she was looking at Summoner’s chair. Psiioniic didn’t know what to do. He plopped down in his seat ungracefully and sideways so he could prop his feet up. It didn’t even earn a scolding from Redglare. Psiioniic knew she was hurting.

“Redglare?” he said. She turned her head slightly in his direction. Psiioniic continued. “Send me to interrogate the Chancellor. I’ll find the Sith Lord from there. I… I can’t kill Signless.”

Redglare shook her head. “Signless isn’t Signless anymore. The Chancellor _is_ the Sith Lord. You’d die if you went up against her.”

Psiioniic sighed. “How did you find that out?” He wasn’t skeptical or bitter, just curious.

“Summoner left me a message before he went to arrest her,” she told him.

“I still can’t kill Signless,” he said again.

Redglare just looked at him with that blank expression. “Psiioniic, you have to find him. Stop him. Let go of that name on your arm and look at this as it is. Signless is a Sith that needs to be stopped and you and I are the only ones who can take care of that right now so I’m sending you to find him while I confront Peixes and hopefully we both succeed in stopping this before it begins. In the event that we fail we’ll just have to deal with that to. Okay?”

Psiioniic nodded. “He’s like my moral.”

Redglare clenched her jaw. “Do you know where he is?”

“Mustafar, probably,” Psiioniic admitted, his mind working fast. “That’s where all the Separatist leaders are. If I were Peixes I’d want to tie up all my loose ends.”

Redglare stood up. “Then go to him. May the Force be with you.”

He followed her, his hero, to the door. She’d be going down and he’d be going up to steal a speeder. “May the Force be with you, Redglare.” They glanced at each other and then went their separate ways.


	14. Pit Stop

Obviously the best thing to do would be to go straight to Mustafar and find Signless. That was goal number one, the plan, the main objective. Psiioniic took a hand off the speeder yoke to rub his tired eyes. He knew he wasn’t going to do that. Disciple needed to know. She deserved to know. He flew quickly to her apartment.

AR didn’t want to admit him entrance. Something about the Jedi being ‘unjust’. What did Signless nickname the droid? Arrogant… Reginald? Was that his name? Reggie? Before Psiioniic could get into a fight with the protocol droid Disciple buzzed the door open and yanked him inside.

“Thank goodness you’re okay!” she cried into his chest. Her hug once again made his ribs scream but he let her. “Chancellor Peixes said the Jedi rebelled! She said they were being hunted down and killed!”

Psiioniic brushed some hair out of her face before sitting down. He didn’t want to talk about Signless just yet. “Tell me what happened,” he said.

Disciple was a wreck. Her hair was all over the place and there was a splotch of face paint she missed clinging to the side of her cheek. She kept touching Psiioniic’s arm like she couldn’t believe he was really there.

“I saw the smoke coming from the Temple,” she explained, calming down a bit. “There was nothing in the news and I couldn’t figure out what was going on. Until I got to the Congress session. Peixes said the Jedi started a rebellion that they tried to kill her. She was presenting evidence and things all afternoon. And then Senator Maryam came and told me it all wasn’t true! She said not to trust anyone. Psiioniic I thought you were dead. All the Jedi have been ordered to be killed.” Her green eyes turned very cold as she continued. “The Senate just went along with every word she said. The war is over. The Jedi are evil. And to top it all off she was declared Empress without a second thought. The Republic is now an empire. Psiioniic I’m terrified. What if she’s like every other fuchsia empress? What is the blood caste system is reestablished?”

Psiioniic couldn’t meet her eyes. “It’s a lot worse than that, Disciple. Peixes is a Sith Lord. The Sith rule the galaxy again.” He expected a gasp but she didn’t bother. Her eyes looked dead. It nearly stopped Psiioniic’s heart, the look on her face. It wasn’t surprised. It was calculated, like she was just putting some final piece into a puzzle that had badgered her for years.

“Does this have anything to do with Signless?” she asked tonelessly.

Disciple was a smart woman. She had put two and two together so fast. Psiioniic’s shoulder’s sagged. “Has he been here?” he asked her.

Disciple blinked like she was just waking up. “Yeah, right after the attack. We got in a fight.” She laughed cruelly. “We never fight like that. He said not to trust the Senators, and the Jedi. He even said not to trust you, if you were still alive.” Tears of green were streaming down her face but her voice didn’t waver. “And he told me to wait for him while he did something for the Chancellor.”

“In Mustafar?” Psiioniic asked quietly.

Disciple nodded. “I wanted to come with him. We’ve done all kinds of crazy stuff together. We…” she paused to wipe her face. “We’re a team. We’re equals but he was treating me like I was so delicate. I hate that. He knows I hate that. And that’s when he started yelling and…” her heartbroken eyes meet Psiioniic’s. “Something terrible has happened to him, hasn’t it? Signless wouldn’t do that.”

“Peixes has been corrupting him for a very long time…” Psiioniic started slowly. She glared at him. _Don’t give me the easy shit,_ her eyes said. “Signless has turned to the Dark Side.” Disciple held her face in her hands. She was shaking her head.

“But what does that mean, Psiioniic? What did he do? Why are you so terrified of him?”

Psiioniic wondered if Disciple knew how sensitive she was to the Force. She would have made such a wonderful Jedi. He swallowed hard and gave it to her straight. “He’s now Peixes’s apprentice, as far as we can tell. He led the attack on the Temple. He killed everyone inside.”

Disciple was shaking her head more and more. Sobs rocked her shoulders. Her words were distorted by the lumps in her throat but she was still asking the important questions. “Everyone? Not… not even…”

“Even the children,” Psiioniic said tightly. His eyes were watering now. He couldn’t cry. He had to be strong for Disciple. He had to let her know at least one of them were emotionally sound. The problem was Disciple didn’t someone else to be strong for her. She needed someone to be honest with her. He thought maybe Signless didn’t ever to understand that. So Psiioniic cried. Not as hard as Disciple and not as painfully. He cried the silent tears of a mourner. He wasn’t ashamed to cry over the loss of his best friend.

“How?” Disciple whispered.

“He was lied to and deceived and corrupted by Peixes, that bitch,” Psiioniic said.

Disciple didn’t flinch at her regal friend’s profanity. She just nodded and took a few deep breaths. Once she was breathing evenly she grabbed Psiioniic’s shoulders and looked him in the eyes.

“Psiioniic listen to me.”

“Okay.”

“Whatever happens to us, whatever Signless becomes you have you promise me something.”

“Okay.”

She took a deep breath. “First of all, Signless and I agreed never to tell anyone in the galaxy this. If he finds out I’ve told you I don’t think he’ll ever forgive me. The reason I’m going to tell you this is because I love him and I trust you. I know the Signless I fell in love with wouldn’t want any harm to come to them. Even if he doesn’t do something intentionally I don’t want them to get hurt by default.”

“Who?” Psiioniic asked breathlessly.

Disciple smiled so, so sadly. Psiioniic didn’t like all these sad smiles. She readied herself and said, “Our grubs.” Psiioniic opened his mouth to ask questions but none came. Disciple continued. “There is a male and female on Tatooine. Signless rescued them from slave traders before the war started. The boy is named Karkat and the girl is named Kanaya. They’ve started cocooning recently. Psiioniic, we’ve already imprinted on them. They’ll our family.”

Imprinted. Those grubs were going to be like Signless and Disciple when they shed their cocoons. Usually imprinting happened after the second hatching but he knew from biology class in cases where the bonding hormones are excited sufficiently it can happen earlier. Whatever the rescue was probably had something to do with it, that and the maelstrom of the Force swirling around Signless at all times.

“What do you want me to do?” he gulped. He wasn’t a lusus.

“Protect them,” she asked of him simply. “Please just promise to keep them safe. I want to save Signless. I need to. I don’t want to live without him. The Dark side isn’t… it’s not going to let him up easy, is it? It might take a while.”

“I’ll keep them safe as long as I live. I swear that to you,” Psiioniic promised.

“Are you going to kill him?” Disciple whispered.

“I don’t know,” Psiioniic answered truthfully. “I should. But…” He trailed off. He couldn’t imagine killing someone he’d known for so long.

“You love him too,” Disciple laughed harshly. Psiioniic nodded. He did.

 


	15. Seeing Fire

Dualscar nearly blew his head off his shoulders. He hadn’t been expecting that when he arrived on Mustafar but the battle-hardened purple blood almost took him out. It was luck for the most part, he’d assumed. When he entered the Separatist hideout all but one of the leaders were huddled in a complaining mob in a control room. It made it a lot easier to take care of them from there. They begged him to let them go. They said that the war was over but he knew it wouldn’t really end until they stopped breathing. Pure luck allowed Dualscar to be fixing his hair in the bathroom as the massacre happened. He didn’t expect the crafty Viceroy to pull a rifle out of his cape. The laser should have gone right between his eyes but he somehow deflected it with the Force and cut the high blood right below the gills. With the flutter of the royal purple cape falling to the ground the war was won.

He surveyed the carnage then closed his eyes. It didn’t bother him that he’d caused it. It didn’t even bother him that it didn’t even bother him. It just was. What scared him was that with every life he took it just made him feel stronger, like he’d be able to protect Disciple and Karkat and Kanaya better. That’s what made it all bearable. Them. Somewhere underneath the walls he put up ne knew it was wrong. It made him suffer to do the things he was doing but someone had to step up. Someone had to save this galaxy from the corruption and evil that had infected it so long ago. To think he’d almost fallen for the Jedi’s little facade. If Condense hadn’t saved him he might have been one of them already.

Security screens filling up the control room captured his attention. There was nothing interesting, only the flows of lava that covered the planet and the plant processing it. He needed to look at something, though. To witness all the swirling molten rock surrounding him upset some memory in the back of his mind but he couldn’t quite put his finger on what it was. That was okay. He didn’t want to. If he tried to remember whatever it was he had forgotten he might remember what he had to do in the Temple and he didn’t want to do that. There was no point to doing that. If he was going to remember anything it would be Disciple.

It occurred to him that he should inform his Master that the Separatists were taken care of. He set up a hologram link that connected immediately to a fuzzy image of Her Imperious Condescension. Damn magma was interfering with the signal.

“Well buoy, is it fin-ished?” Condesce asked. He nodded. She cackled in delight. “Ooh this is good! Congrats red, you just brought peace back ta this galax-sea.” He nodded again but couldn’t bring himself to smile like she was.

“Senda message to our fronds in tha Trade Federation. Tell ‘em that we took ‘em all. Highblood, Noir, Dualscar… tell ‘em to shut down all the droids ‘cause this war has come to a close.” Condesce leaned back in her chair. It made the image fuzzier. “You done good, kid.”

“Thank you, my Lord. I’ll send the message.”

“See ya soon, Sufferer.”

The link was terminated. He still wasn’t used to the new name. Sufferer. Really it should be Darth Sufferer but he wasn’t prepared for that yet. Deep, deep in his subconscious he knew a memory of Psiioniic was laughing at the name. One thing was for sure, though. He had left the name Signless behind. He didn’t deserve it anymore. That name was a token of Dolorosa and he couldn’t bear to think of her anymore. She never followed the Order’s rules. She probably hadn’t been corrupted by their power hungry ideologies before she died. Probably.

He didn’t know. He buried his head in his hands and breathed deeply. Why did the Jedi hate the Dark side so much? It was the empty space between solar systems. It was the place behind your eyelids when you were falling asleep. It was the ink used to write down thoughts that changed civilizations. It had always been with him. He just never realized what it was and now that he could put it to good use he felt stronger. The Dark side allowed him to use the Force beyond what he’d ever been able to do with the Jedi. It helped him. It saved him.

It did not come without a price though. The weight of the atrocities he committed sat heavy on his chest. His mind wouldn’t let him think about it. Any doubt floating up there felt wispy and unreachable but they were still there. If Disciple ever found out what he did today… well that’d be okay. She wouldn’t have to understand. He couldn’t expect her to. She’d just have to trust he was doing the right thing for both of them.

At that moment a Nubian travel ship touched down on one of the security monitors as if Disciple traveled across half the galaxy to argue that very thought. He allowed himself a small smile. It would be just like her to do that. But what was she doing here? A nauseating bubble of anxiety crawled into his throat as he ran out to meet her.

 

The ramp from the ship was just lowering as he rushed out. Disciple didn’t wait for the ramp to finish. She jumped the last few feet and ran straight into his arms. He lifted her up and twirled her, kissing her, holding her. He buried his face into her shoulder.

“Signless, I’m so glad you’re okay,” she breathed into his neck.

“I’m more than okay, Disciple,” he told her. “I’m strong. I’m strong enough to protect you forever.”

She pulled away from him slowly. Fear shot down his spine like lighting. She looked like she was dying. “What’s wrong?” he asked. “Are you hurt?”

She shook her head. “I need you to be honest with me, Signless.” He frowned at her. She was afraid of him. That’d never really happened before. “Tell me what happened.”

He shook his head and held her hands. “What do you mean ‘what happened’? I did what I had to for you, for our family. Hell I saved the whole fucking the galaxy for you! What do you mean ‘what happened’?”

She stroked his face gently. He grabbed her hand. “To you,” she said. Her voice was tight. “What have you done?”

“Are you accusing me of having done something?” he yelled, throwing her hand down. What the hell was wrong with her?

She reached out for him but he stepped away. She was shaking. “Did you turn to the Dark side? Did you kill those Jedi? I need to know so I can help you!”

“Help me?” he roared. “I don’t need your help! Why are you afraid of me? I did those things so we could be together! Don’t you see?” He yanked his hand back and Disciple came hurting towards him. He caught her by the wrists. “The Jedi were keeping us apart! They were killing the Republic!”

“Signless you’re hurting me,” she said calmly. “You’re not yourself. Let us help you.”

“Us?” He pulled his burning glare away from her bright eyes and looked back towards the ship. Psiioniic stood atop of the ramp. He gripped Disciple tighter. “What the hell is he doing here? What did he say to you?”

“He wants to help us,” she said softly. She always spoke softly to calm him down. He tightened his grip and she cried out. He felt bones snapping under his palms. “Please Signless! I love you! Don’t do this!”

“Love me?” he threw her down. She hit the hard, hot ground painfully. “Love me? No, you don’t love me! You love him!” he pointed at Psiioniic, pushing him down with the Force. Psiioniic disappeared as his body tumbled backwards like he’d been hit by a laser. “You always have! Just like you’ve always love the Jedi more than anything else. How long have been against me?”

She was crying. Her wrists were bleeding. White bits stuck out. Her eyes were out of focus. “Stop saying this, Signless.”

“We could have changed this galaxy together!” he yelled. He couldn’t stop. Not her. Not Disciple too. “We could have changed it like we always said we would! Our kids would be happy!”

“I’m not against you! I love you! I want to help you!” she cried. “Signless!”

“Stop calling me that!”

“Taken another name already?” Psiioniic yelled as he strode towards him. Sparks ran around his horns, the halo of an electric angel. “Forgotten who you are that quickly?”

He couldn’t deal with this. Not both of them. Not now. “Me? What about you!” He gestured to Disciple crying on the ground. “Look what you’ve done to her!”

“You did this yourself, Signless,” Psiioniic growled, taking a step closer. “Peixes did this to you! Let us help you! We can still stop her! You can still change!”

“You’re wrong!” he screamed. “This is exactly like you to do. Manipulate me!” His voice sounded so foreign to his ears. It was strained and almost mantic. “Trick me! Take what I love!” The words were foreign as well.

“Please,” Psiioniic begged in a low voice. He stepped forward with his palms down. The sparks betrayed the gesture but his voice was sincere. “Don’t go down this path. Listen to Disciple.” At least, it was as sincere as Psiioniic believed it to be.

He snapped his hand back towards Psiioniic to point an accusing finger. There was an unfamiliar tug at his fingertips that he ignored. He didn’t even turn around so as not to break eye contact with Psiioniic. “You’re nothing! Both of you!” Psiioniic’s eyes were cast behind him. They were frozen on something. He elected to keep going regardless. “You can’t handle what I am! I saved this galaxy! I did everything you couldn’t! I brought peace where you brought deception! I brought freedom from your lies! The Dark side isn’t something to fear, the Jedi’s ambitions are!”

Psiioniic still stared at the spot behind him. The sparks were going crazy enough to actually buzz. They buzzed around his horns and his eyes and his white knuckled fists. Finally Sufferer turned to see what was so important. Disciple lay limp on the ground.

“You snapped her neck, you son of a bitch,” Psiioniic breathed. The cloud of sparks grew with the breath like a flame would grow with oxygen. Clenched fists unfurled with surprising calmness. He drew both lightsabers from his belt and ignited them. “You really are gone.”

No. Psiioniic was lying. She couldn’t have… yet her presence was gone. “You did this!” Sufferer yelled, reaching for his own lightsaber. “You brought her here! You put her in danger! You lied to her!”

Psiioniic was crackling with unchecked fury. The sparks circled him to create his own personal electric storm. “You’ve become a Sith, Signless! Everything you hated!”

“I’ll kill you for what you did to her!” he yelled.

Psiioniic scoffed and whirled his sabers. “Funny,” the Jedi said, “I was just thinking the same thing.”

Psiioniic charged. Sufferer’s free hand lashed out and gripped at the hot air. His other was already gripping for the saber at his belt. Barrels and containers and hot rock all flew towards Psiioniic. Psiioniic dodged the projectiles with a peculiar kind of determination. His cold and precise movements were nothing like that of Sufferer’s heated rage. The more Sufferer threw at him the less the objects followed their path. Psiioniic strode up to him with a look he’d seen so many times before when Psiioniic was about to take someone’s life.

Sufferer launched himself off the ground to hack Psiioniic down but Psiioniic stepped aside at the last moment. His former master, his old friend barreled down on him in slash after slash of red and blue blades. Sufferer dodged and spun but Psiioniic was making his mark far too often. Psiioniic danced to a cold rhythm and worked his way closer and closer. The sparks bouncing off of his gray skin bit at Sufferer like agitated insects.

The way Psiioniic fought was angry and deliberate. Sufferer was just plain angry. He knew he had to use the thick, syrupy force coursing through his veins if he were to win. If only Psiioniic could see. Sufferer feigned a strike and pushed Psiioniic back. With all that pent up rage Psiioniic could have easily learned the ways of the Dark side. Sufferer cut low, almost taking off Psiioniic’s leg at the knee. But there would never be a chance for him to learn. Psiioniic had taken Disciple away from him and that was unforgivable.

Psiioniic was losing ground rapidly but it brought no delight to Sufferer. As the younger troll pushed him back into the station the fear was becoming apparent on Psiioniic’s face. It etched itself into his features like a sculptor would etch stone. In a way it made Sufferer feel powerful. He struck and struck at Psiioniic. The Jedi Master barely avoided the blows. Walls were slashed open. Wires were cut. Computers were demolished. Sounds of lightsaber slits, exploding circuitry, and whining metal echoed through the empty station. Still the two of them fought.

When they reached the control room Psiioniic jumped over the bodies and lowered his stance to strike. Sufferer splayed his fingers. The bodies in front of his all slammed into the walls with wet, hard noises. Psiioniic took a step back, slipping on Dualscar’s cape and falling hard. Sufferer was on him in an instant but Psiioniic flung his body back and kicked. The contact between boot and jaw was absolute enough to give Psiioniic a precious moment to leap up and fall back.

The chase continued. As their cries and the sounds of lightsaber on lightsaber worked their ways lower into the station they pushed nearer to the plant where the lava was processed. Impatience and frustration clawed at Sufferer. His attacks gained ferocity buy the minute.

They danced into a tight hallway. Sufferer went to take out Psiioniic’s head, to end it. Psiioniic stubbornly ducked and the red blade buried itself deep into the reinforced hall with a volley of sparks and hissing. The lights overhead died with a _click._

Blue and red flashes transformed the hallways into a strobing tunnel like something in a low level city club. Sufferer clicked off his lightsaber. He watched as Psiioniic’s eyes grew wide at the sudden disappearance of his enemy. Psiioniic took a deep, shuddering breath. Sufferer’s skin crawled at the sudden burst of fear pouring out of Psiioniic’s very essence. It was as invigorating as it was pathetic.

“Shit!” Psiioniic spat. He backed away out of the tunnel, his face just a few feet from Sufferer’s. His lightsabers swung wildly back and forth. Sufferer just walked calmly forward as Psiioniic stumbled backwards.

Now, Sufferer had gotten a chance to once over the station when he after he’d taken care of the Separatists. Psiioniic did not. So when that flight of stairs that sat patiently in the darkness neared Psiioniic’s rubber heels, all it took was a sudden step forward on Sufferer’s part to spook Psiioniic into a jump backwards. Sufferer enjoyed exactly three second of panic and thrashing limbs from Psiioniic before the blue and red lightsabers went flying as Psiioniic tumbled loudly down the long flight of stairs into the lava plant far below. Spewed profanity and resounding _clank clank clanks_ gradually quieted as Psiioniic’s sparking figure rolled to a stop at the bottom of the metal staircase. Even the sparks dimmed to nothing.

Sufferer walked quietly through the blackness to the bottom of the stairs. It felt like a long walk but when he reached the bottom he was ready.

“I wish you could have seen it my way,” Sufferer whispered as he raised his lightsaber to stab the space just below the last stair. Even if he had completed the action it wouldn’t have mattered because Psiioniic came barreling out of the side tunnel next to him and knocked him off his feet.

“Me too!” Psiioniic yelled as the both of them went over a railing hidden in the darkness and fell deeper into the plant. They landed onto the metal grate flooring with an explosive _crash!_ and rolled to their feet. Lightsabers ignited once again the heated battle resumed. In fact, the temperature was getting downright unbearable. Sufferer navigated through the dark factory floor by the light of the three clashing sabers and Psiioniic’s newly awakened sparks. They were under a lava flow, he realized. The room was barely insulated for droids.

He rushed at Psiioniic with a growl. As expected, the predictable troll fell into a roll to avoid him. Sufferer let him do just that as he kept on sprinting past him and sliced the keypad off the door on the wall behind where Psiioniic had just stood. The heavy metal frame swung open with a billowing gust of scalding heat. Sufferer’s face burned as he ran and jumped up the ladder and onto a platform emerging from the lava. Psiioniic was right behind him, swinging before he left the chute.

Sufferer tried to cut Psiioniic’s wrists as he emerged but Psiioniic simply threw himself from the opening and kept fighting. Sufferer roared and pushed forward. Up here the heat and winds from the rivers of lava cooked them from all sides. Of course this only added to Sufferer’s fury. He hated heat. He hated Psiioniic. He hated that this idiotic fight was persisting and he hated most of all that Disciple was dead.

He pressed on screaming and sweating. It was gross and messy but so was his life so what did it matter? Psiioniic just barely dodged blows and strikes. Sufferer was landing little burns all over. Out of nowhere Psiioniic’s forehead was bleeding, his shoulder, and his thigh. The forming bruises from his fall looked dark green in orange glow of the lava. Sweat stung Sufferer’s eyes and the noxious gasses rising from the molten rock pulled his mind apart like taffy. When Psiioniic’s feet reached the edge of the platform Sufferer didn’t even bother for clever words as he thrust his saber into Psiioniic’s chest.

To his great irritation the lightsaber did not penetrate Psiioniic’s heart. It barely grazed him. Psiioniic flipped backwards and landed on a moving platform propelled by a droid across the glowing river. There was a zoom and Psiioniic was flying down the molten flow. Rage pulsed at Sufferer’s temple. The damn Jedi just didn’t know how to die.

Sufferer leapt onto a different moving platform and leaned into the droid to catch up with Psiioniic. Then the world slowed down. Something very painful happened in that moment. Psiioniic looked back at him and the face wasn’t scared. It wasn’t angry or nauseated. It wasn’t emotionless. A profound sadness bleed through the downward turn of Psiioniic’s eyebrow and the pinch of his eyes. The way the curve of his lips fell. Psiioniic met Sufferer’s eyes. The man opened up his mouth. Sufferer couldn’t hear him over the splash of the lava. It didn’t matter. He saw the two words form and fall.

_“Please stop.”_

And the illusion of innocence was gone. He had the nerve, the audacity to beg when his very being had corrupted and killed Disciple. His kind destroyed whatever peace the galaxy and the Republic had accomplished. Psiioniic was the reason it had to be his way.

“No!” Sufferer shouted over the blazing wind. He pushed the platform forward. Psiioniic just sighed and readied his sabers, the preverbal narcissist. Lava whipped up between them as they surfed over the currents. Psiioniic was aiming for a shore of volcanic rock. Sufferer reached him before he could get there.

Sufferer knocked one of the sabers out of Psiioniic’s hand with a well-aimed push with the Force. Psiioniic’s face contorted in discomfort as he continued the battle with a singular saber. Sufferer knew taking the lightsaber away was a risk. Psiioniic now had a free had to use the Force unhindered. The Jedi threw rocks and splashed lava onto the platforms. Sufferer flicked away the attacks easily and pounded strikes onto Psiioniic. Psiioniic ducked and dodged before almost tripping backwards.

A wave rocked the platforms. They drifted apart. Psiioniic sprang off his platform like a rocket and crashed into Sufferer. Something snapped but it wasn’t the Sith. With the way Psiioniic was breathing it was probably one of his bad ribs. Sufferer kept on pushing through the heat and the noise and the air. Psiioniic tried to do something, anything but Sufferer managed to tilt and feign at just the right moments. He jabbed a hand into Psiioniic’s chest and watched the Jedi grind his teeth. It was only a matter of time and they both knew it.

”Stop this!” Psiioniic yelled. “You’re better than this Signless!”

Sufferer heaved an overhead strike that Psiioniic blocked. Barely. “You never knew me, Psiioniic! You thought you did and it ruined you!” Sufferer used the Force to push Psiioniic off the platform but he merely flipped right over Sufferer’s head and the fighting continued on the other side. “The Force as you knows it is wrong!” He struck. “You never believed me! Disciple believed me but you took that away from me too!”

“Look at yourself!” Psiioniic spat as he deftly bobbed away from the strikes. “You’ve turned into a murderer! Stop this! Come back!”

Sufferer grabbed Psiioniic’s throat. A mistake. He knew it was a mistake. He knew it was going to be bad for him but he had to shut Psiioniic up. “You never knew me, Psiioniic,” he said over Psiioniic’s gags. “You hated me from the day we met. Hell, the only reason you even agreed to train me was because Dolorosa guilt tripped you into it on her deathbed. I’ve been nothing but a burden to you since we met.”

Bubbles of spit drooled down Psiioniic’s chin. He kicked Sufferer’s chest but Sufferer didn’t let go. When Psiioniic’s boot smacked into his lightsaber arm just so that it swung the clutched weapon and severed the hand clasped around Psiioniic’s neck Sufferer realized where his mistake had led.

He screamed in agony and slashed at Psiioniic’s hand. The remaining lightsaber went flying into the lava. Psiioniic stood before him seemingly defenseless but Sufferer knew better. He knew all of Psiioniic’s little tricks. With all those crackling sparks only one more second would kill one of them. Would Psiioniic shoot first or would Sufferer strike?

Psiioniic’s eyes crackled and glowed. Sufferer leaned forward into a leap to bridge the gap between them. The energy grew with a likeness to nuclear fission. Sufferer raised his arm to strike and as he came down from his jump lighting struck out into the air with the sound of a thousand hands clapping once in unison. Sufferer went low to avoid it. He thrust out an arm and caught the beams with the Force. It propelled Psiioniic backwards onto the black gravel of a rocky shore. Sufferer went sliding in the opposite direction. His boot dipped into the lava and instantaneously caught fire. Sufferer screamed as he kicked it off with the Force and sprang up. When he took a step the skin on the bottom of his foot stuck to the metal beneath it. Psiioniic stared at him from the shore.

In between the pain and the situation, only later would Sufferer realize that the image of Psiioniic standing there would forever be seared into his mind. The Jedi stood like a black shadow on the black shore. The red of the lava illuminated his silhouette just barely, outlining him in a pulsing orange. Through the thick black and the dapple of lava glow Psiioniic’s eyes shone like suns floating through the darkest reaches of deep space. They bored into Sufferer. Tears glistened below each celestial orb and captured the red and blue and orange like a sunset in one drop. Psiioniic stood like death and cried like a god. It shook the resolve in Sufferer’s soul.

But pain can break any spell. The red hot needles poking into Sufferer’s bare foot on the hot metal proved too much to bear. He launched himself onto the shore and directly into Psiioniic. Suddenly he was on the ground. He tried to move but his legs would not work. They would not work because they were not there.

Psiioniic stood above Sufferer holding Sufferer’s dropped lightsaber. The deadpan troll switched the weapon off and stowed it in his belt.

The pain and the heat and the fumes tore through Sufferer’s body and mind. He screamed. Psiioniic just stood there above him, silent. “You coward!” Sufferer roared as he grasped at the volcanic gravel with his only hand. The noise came out cracked and raw. “You can’t even end me! You’re weak! Just like every other Jedi!”

Psiioniic cried harder now. His mouth opened and closed. Sufferer screamed again and tried to pull the lightsaber from Psiioniic’s belt with the Force but it was a pathetic attempt. All Psiioniic had to do was reach out and touch it to keep it from moving.

“Signless…”

“No!” Sufferer yelled. “You don’t get to call me that! You don’t deserve to live! You should be dead just like the rest of them!” The pain ate away at any remorse left in his heart. It corroded and broke down his sense of trust for anyone and it ripped his memories to shreds and glued them back together in an order that told him _you did what you had to, this is right, your suffering is towards a good end, the right end._

“I’m so sorry, Vantas,” Psiioniic whispered evenly. Now he was only a few feet away from Sufferer’s desperate hand. Looking up Psiioniic became a colossal, judging giant that could crush him like a bug if he wanted to.

“I hate you! I’ll kill you Psiioniic and I’ll wipe this galaxy clean of any Jedi left!” He slid down the gravel and closer to the lava below. It burned in molten hands grabbing hold of him and dragging him down. “I hate you!”

Psiioniic was crying so hard it didn’t make sense. Sufferer screamed. He didn’t have a right to cry! He didn’t have a right to hold his scarred arm that way! He didn’t have a right to any of it, to anything. He was the embodiment of everything Sufferer hated in this world and he was going to kill him. Personally, he was going to see that Psiioniic died at his feet.

“Don’t you care?” Psiioniic asked. Sufferer kept screaming. “Don’t you care about them? About your family!”

Family? Sufferer tried to think. He tried to think but the fire on his thighs had spread to his back. He could smell is own flesh burning. “I hate you!” he yelled again because it was all he could do. Family? He tried to think but whatever it was just didn’t come. It wasn’t there. Psiioniic must be lying again. He was always lying to him but the faint recollection of small bodies he once held against his chest argued otherwise.

Sufferer watched Psiioniic cry. Psiioniic watched Sufferer burn. The flames ate at his clothes and soon his hair was on fire too. It added a plastic overtone to the rest of the burning medley. When he looked back to Psiioniic the Jedi was gone. Sufferer closed his eyes. Psiioniic was gone. Why did that hurt more than the fire? He couldn’t figure that one out. He kept his eyes closed. The gas made his head spin. The world didn’t stop tilting. Time became nothing and even as Lord Condesce lifted him up onto a medical skiff he was trying his hardest to die because he realized that once Psiioniic had given up on him it was over.

 


	16. New

_Filtered._ It was the first word that popped into his head when he wrenched his sore eyes open, funny how things like that happen. They felt raw and wet. He blinked but the red filter remained. A kind of mask and helmet, he realized. He wondered who had put it on him. There was an ocean nearby. The sound of the waves filled his ears as they rushed in and out over the sand. _Whoosh._ In. _Whoosh._ Out. Maybe it was a lake. Maybe it was Naboo. Maybe Disciple was near him. He breathed with the waves. It was all he could do before he lost consciousness again.

 

No legs at all. They second time he woke up he tried to wiggle his toes. That’s what they always told him to do in the hospitals. Wiggle your toes so they knew the motor functions still worked. He tried to wiggle them but he didn’t feel anything happen. There were no toes to wiggle. He tried to remember why that was but couldn’t. When he tried to look at the damage he discovered he was so weak he couldn’t even lift his own head.

 

He didn’t remember passing out again. It may have been one of the medical droids hovering around him. They were buzzing like flies with blowtorches. They were attaching new prosthetic limbs, he’s figured out that much. That’s probably why he was strapped down too.

The ocean still sounded pleasantly. He wondered what planet they were on. Ocean… had Condesce taken him back to Alternia? He didn’t know.  It was becoming harder to focus. His skin stung. A droid noticed his twitching and tried to stick another needle into his arm but he flicked it away with the Force. It smashed to pieces against the wall.

The walls were not white and clean like usual medical facilities. They were dark, steaming metal and pipes. The sudden realization hit him that he was in a shop, not a ward. They were building what he’d lost.

Psiioniic.

He wanted to yell but the drugs held him in a churning half state of strange, distant anger. Psiioniic had done this to him. What else did he do? What was he saying? Family. That was something he had said. Karkat. Kanaya. What was he saying about them? Something about Disciple? Where was she?

A flash of memory darted across his mind; the tug on his fingertips as he had whipped his hand away from her but as quick as it came the memory was gone. In fact, he couldn’t hold onto a wisp of any memory at all. Freeze frames and clips of audio sparked in and out of a little broken screen in his head. Disciple laughing. Psiioniic crying. Redglare’s eyes. Highblood’s head rolling. Blood on his knees. His first time in bed with Disciple. The rain on his face from Naboo. Sand between his teeth. A fighter yoke in his hands. The feel of Kanaya’s horns digging into his shoulder. Dolorosa patting him on the head. The clip of the Crab’s pinchers. Pinch’s stubby leg on the floor boards. Condesce’s hair in the wind. A market place. A book. A verse in a song. Karkat’s eyes. The smell of Psiioniic after a fight….

 

“Ay, Lord Sufferer, you awake in there?”

Her voice seemed so loud over the waves. Sufferer nodded. He couldn’t see her but when he tried to move his head she stepped closer. Out of the corner of the red windows of the mask she appeared in full view.

“You reeling ‘aight?” she asked in a quiet voice.

He nodded again. “Where’s Disciple?” The ocean stopped when he spoke. That was funny.

“Red, you took her out. Lookin’ at the video, I think ya snapped her neck.”

The waves got bigger as his breathing got harder. “I didn’t. That was Psiioniic. He did that.” Condesce didn’t reply. The waves kept getting louder. “I didn’t kill her!” But the memory of that little tug, the little grip on the Force he hadn’t realized he’d taken. “No! No!” The cuffs attaching him to the table strained but a thought crossed his mind before they could break.

“We have to go to Tatooine! Now!”

“I don think that’s sucha good idea.”

“No!” he yelled. The walls shook. “You don’t understand!”

Condesce laid a hand on his shoulder. She took a deep breath and almost whispered her next sentences very carefully. “The grubs. I know about ‘em ‘cause I found it in the Council records after we attacked. I’m sorry. Accordin’ to the Council, they didn’t wanna risk you imprinting on some kids so they…” her voice tapered off.

“What?” he demanded. “They what!”

She took her hand off his shoulder. “They sent someone to krill ‘em. The file said they were just too dangerous. I’m sorry Sufferer. They’re dead.”

“Are you sure?” he asked. He strained against the cuffs to look at her, to see her eyes. They were staring right back at him. “Are you positive?”

She nodded. “I didn’t even believe there were grubs out there so I sent a couple a clones out to check. Tha big lusus was holdin’ ‘em. They krilled that crab too.”

His mind went into a snowstorm. No coherent thought got through the haze, just a blind panic of pain and agony. Panic seeped into his very being and the ocean was replaced by screaming. His screaming. It filled up his ears and the room and the walls and nearly drowned him on the inside of the mask. Objects flung themselves of the walls around him and pipes burst.

He did not make the decision to forget them. He didn’t try and it didn’t happen right then. It would take many years of pushing the memories away and lashing back at them like they were some animal trying to attack. He would spend long nights awake and never even once uttering their names. He’d only remember the way they felt when they were sleeping.

But for now he screamed. And he cried. And he cursed the Jedi for taking them away. He cursed Psiioniic for allowing it. He wished he could carve their names into his flesh so as to always remember but that’d make him remember the pain he didn’t want to have to recall. He couldn’t take it so he just screamed until he felt the blood rising up on his tongue from his raw throat and even then he just cried. His family. Disciple. Karkat. Kanaya.

Gone.


	17. The End of the Beginning

Psiioniic sat back on the hillside. It was very hot on this planet and very dry, even more so than he remembered. Karkat would have a hard time growing up here.

He looked out over the dry plateau and the rising suns. Everything glowed orange. It was not the orange like fire on Mustafar but orange like candlelight. In a way he even kind of liked it. This place would be his home for a very long time, he imagined. A very long time.

After he’d left Mustafar everything crashed down around him in one series of unfortunate news after another. He’d taken Disciple’s body with him, of course. He brought her all the way to Maryam’s starship. AR was silent the whole way, which was interesting. The droid probably picked up on the situation after they’d watched Disciple die from the ship’s windows. WV had come to Mustafar with Signless. The little droid buzzed softly when they saw Psiioniic and AR leaving so Psiioniic waved them aboard as well. Former Senator Maryam and Master Redglare were waiting. They both looked deeply defeated. But then again, he probably did too. Then again that’s because he was. They all were.

Redglare had fought Condesce but it had been no use. Condesce was too powerful. That statement was what really secured the hopelessness of the situation to Psiioniic. Redglare, the woman he had admired and hated and revered his whole life had been defeated. To him something like that must be a broken seal foreshadowing the end of the universe. It meant everything had been flipped upside-down and inside out and needed to be fixed. To have someone beat Redglare was to have the Sith be… real. It meant that they had lost.

Apparently it had been a quite epic clash of skill and raw force between the two Masters. Maryam just barely managed to help Redglare escape the Senate Building. The two fled to the starship and headed for Mustafar. Psiioniic had signaled them about then.

“I have to go into exile,” Redglare explained to Psiioniic in the ship’s conference room. “After I lost… I need to spend a lot of time alone.”

“But what are we going to do?” Psiioniic asked through his hands. “What are we going to do about Condesce? And Signless?”

Redglare shook her head. They both still felt Signless was alive. There was no denying it and now it was too late for blame or anger.

“You need to stop calling him Signless. He’s Sufferer now,” Redglare told him. “And there’s nothing we can do but go to those grubs immediately. If he did imprint on them like Disciple said then we must find them.”

“He’ll come looking for him. Condesce will send people.”

Redglare shook her head. “She already has and I already took care of that. Don’t look so surprised. As for Sufferer, I don’t believe so. “ She leaned forward over the table. “Someone told me otherwise.”

The quiet shift in her tone made both Maryam and Psiioniic look at her a little more carefully. “Who?” Psiioniic asked.

“Dolorosa.”

Redglare had heard from Psiioniic’s old Master. Dolorosa had become a far greater Jedi then Redglare after she died. She became part of the Force and studied Whills to the point where she was no longer confined to one plane of existence or the next. She very happily took Redglare on as an apprentice. Redglare said she was going to go into hiding to learn all that she could. Psiioniic had asked Redglare to say hello for him. Redglare said she didn’t need to.

 

Their solemn company brought Disciple’s body back to Naboo. The handmaidens wept. The Queen wept. The whole planet seemed to become enshrouded in agony as the news spread. Even Keeper and all the trolls from the colony lined up behind her funeral procession to pay their respects.

They didn’t stay for her funeral. It was too dangerous. Even with Queen Allellah’s promise of secrecy to the remaining Jedi it wasn’t worth the risk to remain on planet. Psiioniic wished he could have stayed. He wished he could have said goodbye to Disciple in a way that made her death real, not just some nightmare. He didn’t have that luxury.

From there it was a quick jump to Tatooine. The three of them waited till nightfall to look for the grubs. It wasn’t that difficult. Redglare sensed them easily. They were waiting on a quaint little moisture farm out past the racing tracks. When they knocked on the door a lusus hissed in reply.

Had the crab-like lusus been the actual custodian of the grubs he would have killed them on sight. After grubs cocoon the lusus goes feral to protect them. But this lusus was old and learned and let them in. Redglare was the only one who could communicate with it. She explained the situation entirely. After she was finished the lusus agreed. The grubs had to be split up. It would be too suspicious if a lusus raised two grubs, especially when one of them was not its token blood caste or gender.

That left the problem of what to do with Kanaya but Maryam solved that quickly enough. She and her wife had wanted to raise a child for some time. Kanaya would be loved and happy with Maryam and the Queen of Alderaan. She’d live well as Karkat would be raised by a lusus. They agreed.

Truth be told, Psiioniic thought the lusus, Signless had called him the Crab, couldn’t care less about the state of the galaxy. The Crab just wanted the grubs to be safe because that was what Signless would have wanted. Psiioniic respected that.

“I’ll stay here,” he told Redglare. She didn’t look surprised. “I’ll watch over Karkat and make sure he’s okay and safe.”

Redglare nodded. “Good. In the meantime you can train with Dolorosa as well. Mediate on her thoughts. She’ll appear to you. I’ll help you along the way.”

“Thank you, Master.”

The two of them were silent. Maryam was inside with the Crab looking over the cocoons. The Jedi stood surveying the desert. Psiioniic turned towards Redglare.

“Do you believe Karkat and Kanaya can save the galaxy?”

Redglare shook her head. “It’s not for me to decide. It’s for them. I see you rubbing your arm, Psiioniic. Step away from prophecies and the proposed future and look at the world as it is right now. Right now all we can do is look after these children the best we can and we can hope. Nothing can ever stop us from hoping but ourselves.”

 

Redglare soon left to an unknown planet. Maryam returned to Alderaan with the droids and Kanaya. The Crab stayed with Karkat, and Psiioniic made his way up into the sandstone hills. From where he was perched on the hillside he could just make out the little moister farm as a speck in the distance.

The suns shone bright on his tired eyes. He wished deeply for a recuperacoon but knew there wouldn’t be one for many years to come. That was okay. A hot wind blew across his face. Even though he’d showered on the starship he still felt like he couldn’t get Signless’s blood off his skin. He wondered if he ever would. He blinked in the light. Dark spots danced over his vision after he did.

Finally, and with a heave that turned into a sigh, he pulled himself up and wrapped his cloak around his face to shield it from the sunlight. His joints popped and his muscles protested, still sore from the fight not even a day before. Strange how time worked like that.

He turned his back to the suns and started down the sandy trail to his new home. A small smile dared show itself on the corner of his mouth as he did. He was going to go home and sleep for a very, very long time and no one could tell him to do otherwise.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> AH!!!!! There we go, folks. The end of the prequels! I hope everyone enjoyed! Thank you all so much for reading!  
> I'd like to throw a shout out to @nonbinarysollux and @Eternalmetalhead for being amazing and commenting so much. I really appreciate the feedback and I honestly am so motivated by you two. Thank you so much : )  
> Okay, so update on how the rest of this is going to go. I'm taking a month hiatus to get some work into the original trilogy done so I can continue to regularly post over the next couple of months (ie., track season, aka, hell in the spring where all I do is eat, sleep, and throw projectiles across a field for points). The first chapter of Paradox Space Wars Book 4: Heirs of Hope should be up before March 12th. Beta kids, here we come! So, I took way more liberty in those ones than in this series. There's side arcs and more characters and backstories and a whole bunch of shit I hope y'all like!   
> If you have any questions or comments, my Tumblr is ginger-in-a-fez. I'll also take this opportunity to shamelessly promote my Tumblr if any of you are interested in that sort of thing.  
> Well, that's that! Again, thank you all! Come back in March!


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